Survival of the fittest
by Zombiechimpanzee
Summary: the dead are walking, and the people left alive are turning into a different, more dangerous kind of monster. In this new world it's back to the basics, it's survival of the fittest.
1. Chapter 1

_**With a Whimper  
**_

Chapter 1

_It had been weeks since this disease had hit my hometown. In that time I have lost most of my family and most of my friends, and the friends that are left aren't the same people anymore. We've been hiding in an orchard supply this entire time, trapped by the fear of the dead. All we have are a few weapons and a duffel bag of supplies. The reason I'm writing this message is we're leaving our safehouse, and find a way off the mainland. If you find this safehouse, please leave it the way you found it, and don't take more than you need, I'm leaving these supplies for everyone, please show some humanity, at least, what's left of it._

_ Remember keep hope alive, I may not be religious, but I still believe in hope, as long as we can keep hope up we'll be able to survive, good luck._

_-Carl_

I set the letter on top of a supply box I was leaving and grabbed my weapons. I took one last look at what has been my home for three weeks. My friends and I walked out of the door never to return. I walked with my machete in my right hand, ready to fight. I thought back to how this all started, months ago…

The Walking

Dead

I was in school and I was bored out of my mind while my English teacher went on about skeltonic verse poems. I. Don't. Care. I thought to myself staring out the window; I lived in a relatively small town in California went to a normal high school; my life was boring as any teenagers seemed. But that day it changed, that one day at school my life went down the shitter and hasn't come up yet.

I stared out the window and looked at nothing; this was a habit I have had in English now for the past three years since it's basically been the same material over and over again. I tried to avoid thinking about how boring this class was and think about the fact today was Friday and tomorrow my friends and I were going to just hang out.

Just as class was being dismissed we heard a buzzer and instinctively went under my desk; this buzzer was what my school used for an intruder alarm and we'd just had a practice drill last week. The teacher shut the windows and closed the shutters then went to her desk and hid. We all hid under our desks for what seemed like an hour before something happened.

Suddenly the window broke and a bloody hand shot inside, one girl almost screamed before her friend hurried and put a hand over her mouth. Then another window broke and another bloody arm reached inside; this one though pulled at the curtain and managed pull it to the side. What we all saw was grotesque; it was a bloody face, snarling and snapping, its gums were black, and it seemed to be bleeding from the corners of its eyes.

He looked straight at the two girls who were now in plain view. Then one man pulled himself through the window, at this the teacher yelled "GET OUT!" and we all ran the door, the first kid to reach the door yelled and was grabbed by a pair of bloody hands. As everyone else backpedaled I ran forward and blew past the now distracted attacker, I ran to get off of the school grounds; they weren't safe.

I looked around and saw more intruders; they all were bloody and vicious, and strangely sluggish and clumsy. I saw a few other kids doing what I was and making a run for it; I saw one get grabbed when they past a hallway and quickly changed path to avoid the same fate. I rounded a corner and was met by one assailant.

I ducked under his arms and moved past him with ease, and then I heard a scream behind me and knew someone else had met the creeper and didn't react quickly enough. I was trying to just get off campus and hide; I tried not to be distracted by trying to explain what happened, I could think about that later. As I approached the school entrance I saw a few other kids escaping too.

I knew there was an orchard supply near school and it had supplies ranging from clothes to food so it'd be a good place to get to. I just kept running; I wasn't stopping for anything; I was just going to run to orchard and then just wing it. As I ran down the street I saw more stumbling people around and wondered what was going on, this made no sense.

As I ran the other kids who'd made it off campus were starting to follow me and the few kids ahead of me. I slowed to let them catch up; five kids started following me. There were three guys and two girls, one girl had long brown hair, brown eyes, and had a backpack. The other had shoulder length blonde hair, green eyes, and had a bright orange tee-shirt on. One of the guys had short dark blonde hair, blue eyes, and wore a pale green hoodie. The other two were identical twins, brown hair, green eyes, and short; everyone at school called them the Laneys.

"Thanks for letting us catch up." The brown haired girl said "no problem." I replied "my sister and I would have caught up anyway." the blonde guy joked. Nobody laughed "where're we heading?" one twin asked "Orchard supply." I said. We ran for about twenty minutes before we reached orchard supply and we all quickly piled in and sat down. "What the hell's going on?" one of the Laneys asked "don't know, maybe it's that disease that was on the news, I don't know." The blonde girl said.

"Why's nobody here?" I asked "yeah, it's empty, you'd think- guys be quiet." The blonde guy said standing up. "We should grab some tools, for weapons, just in case." One of the Laneys suggested "good idea, I'll go get them." I said "wait, you shouldn't just go alone." The brown haired girl said "don't worry, I know this place well, my dad's a carpenter, we go here all the time." I said before walking to the gardening tools section.

I looked at what was on the racks; there was a good hammer, some pick-axes, hatchets of various styles, lots of cool and unique machetes, and some nice shovels and axe handles. I grabbed a machete for myself, then two more, a large wrench, a hammer, and an axe. I hurried back to the others with the tools and we all picked on to use.

"So, now what?" I asked "maybe we should go to the police station, they'll be able to protect us." The girl with brown hair said "maybe, but if we thought of that think about how many people thought exactly the same way, we should stay here, fortify, then wait for things to solve themselves." The blonde girl said. "I agree, there's food here, and there's a Safeway a block or two from here, and we can use the lumber here to block off doors and windows." Said the girl's brother "I'll go to the Safeway and grab as much food as I can carry, the rest of you should help with barricading or gathering supplies." I said grabbing a large duffel bag and slinging it over my shoulder. I strapped on my machete sheath and then went out the door. I had no idea what was waiting for me.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

It was silent. Dead silent. You could hear the slight breeze. There were no cars, no people, even the birds weren't singing. There were abandoned cars in the street, litter blowing in the wind. There was no sign of life. It was just empty, empty of life. There weren't even any creeps; there was nothing around alive or dead. It was empty. That's the only way I could describe it. Empty.

_**The **_

_**Walking **_

_**Dead**_

I walked down the street to go to the Safeway and grab as many supplies as possible in a duffel bag I had slung over my shoulder. There were no cars driving or even parked on the road, the streets were empty even people seemed to be rare; I only saw one other person and it seemed to be one of those things so I kept my distance. As I got closer to saw a group of twenty people outside the Safeway yelling and trying to get inside.

"LET US IN! LET US IN NOW YOU SELFISH FUCKERS!" one man yelled "WE ALL NEED FOOD!" a woman yelled. I hurried over, "what's the problem?" I asked a relatively calm person "those fuckers won't let us in; they're hording up all the food for themselves." He said furiously. I noticed no one had a weapon or tool to use on the blocked doors "step aside! I can get through the doors just give me some space!" I yelled unsheathing my machete and waiting for the crowd to move. Then I looked at the door and the wooden boxes being used to barricade the doors. "Alright I think I can take the doors down." I said before turning my face away and swinging my machete, breaking through the glass. Then I took a number more swings to break the boxes blocking the door.

"Okay, we should be able to get through now, but just be careful, one at a time." I said pushing bits of wood and glass out of my way and crawling through. Once I was in I hurried to the canned foods and pushed as many cans as I could into the duffel bag before running to the cereal aisle and putting as many boxes as would fit in my bag as I could. I had a little bit of room left in the bag and decided to get some water and powdered drinks. Now I was competing with the crowd outside and I was running grabbing things.

Everyone was just grabbing random stuff, not even food; some were grabbing cigarettes, DVDs, CDs, and cash from the registers. As I ran to get out I grabbed a dozen packs of gum and hurried out the door, which was now clear of debris. As I left I heard screaming and yelling but I didn't dare turn around, I didn't want to think what they were doing to the people who had holed up inside.

I ran back to the orchard supply and as soon as I got inside the others crowded around me. "So, what'd you get?" the Laneys asked "what's out there?" the blonde girl asked "are you okay?" the brown haired girl asked "did you get followed?" the blonde guy asked "I got canned food, cereal, water and some other stuff, there's a lot of angry people, I wasn't followed, and I'm alright, thanks for asking." I panted answering their questions. "We need to be ready to stop at least twenty people, unarmed but pissed off." I said "okay, guys I want all of the doors blocked off or locked, all our supplies need to be out of reach, maybe up on the roof, that includes all the stuff that he got, the clothes, the tools, and any food in here, we can leave the cash and the shelves for the crazy people out there, now let's get this done." The blonde guy said.

"Alright Mark." His sister said hurrying around the store trying to find a ladder up to the roof. I set my duffel down and started grabbing lumber to use to block the doors; the brown haired girl grabbed the keys from a register and hurried around locking the doors to the outside. Mark helped me carry lumber to the Laneys who were ready to nail them to the doorways. We put some on the outside first and then we started putting them on the inside of the building. Mark and I left when we figured the Laneys had this door and moved to the other door which was in the gardening section; we quickly blocked the one door and moved to the windows, which we were carful not to break.

Then Mark and I started grabbing containers, bags of dirt, and plant seeds and hurried to find his sister and get the supplies to the roof. "Where is she?" I asked "ANDREA!" Mark called "over here!" she yelled to us from the end of an aisle. We followed her to a ladder and we started to carry stuff up, we got all the food up first, then we got the tools, power tools, clothes, folding ladders, and then plants and containers up. "I'll get the Laneys, you get the girl." Mark ordered "got it and Mark grab as many buck knives as you can carry!" I said then, not waiting for his reply I slid down the ladder and ran to find the girl.

"Girl, where are you, we need to get up to the roof!" [Man, I wish I'd asked for her name.] I thought as I yelled "where are you?" I hollered "here." She said walking out of a door "alright, we need to get up to the roof now." I said leading the way to the roof. Once we were all on the roof we sat down and introduced ourselves. "I'm Carl." I said "we're Nick and Josh." The twins said "I'm Mark." The dark blonde haired guy said "I'm his sister Andrea." The blonde girl said "I'm Amrita." The brown haired girl said.

After that Mark got up and started putting some planks of wood over the ladder and began nailing them down. "What're you doing?" Josh asked "yeah, won't we need that?" Amrita asked "no, we don't that's why we brought the ladders up, we can use them to get down whenever we want." Mark replied. I agreed with his logic and decided to start planting some seeds.

I filled some of the containers with soil and put seeds in each one, and then I put the containers in the center of the roof so they'd get the most sun possible. Then I leaned against the lip of the roof, and just tried to relax. [I wish I had a book.] I thought. "Hey Carl, can you keep lookout?" mark asked "sure thing." I said turning around and looking at the street.

Mark was working on blocking the ladder while the Laneys were building a small shelter for all of us to sleep under and to get out of the heat, while Andrea inventoried the clothes and food, and Amrita was on watch on the other side of the roof. We were all on edge, with all that happened today we had a right t be, but we kept it together and tried to keep as calm as possible. I was concerned about that mob of people from the Safeway; if they came here we might not be able to fight them off.

It seemed to take forever for the sun to set, but when it did we had our shelter ready so we all sat under it. The floor was raised about a foot off the roof and was strong enough for all of us to sit on and be comfortable. Then Andrea handed each of us a jacket "these'll keep us all warm at night." She said as we all put our jackets on. We all sat down in the shelter and as it grew darker we slowly, calmly drifted to sleep.

We awoke to shouts and yells "LET US IN! LET US IN!" a crowd roared "hurry everyone up!" Mark ordered. We all jumped up and grabbed our weapons and I looked over the edge of the roof and saw the crowd. It was the crowd from yesterday; they were all trying to pull the boards off the doors, but were failing. "Who is it?" Amrita asked moving to get a look over the edge "get back!" I whispered pulling her down and out of sight "stay down; we need to stay out of sight." I said.

The crowd shouted and cursed at us; their rage was obvious and terrifying. "They'll get through eventually." Mark whispered as he crawled to the edge of the roof "I know." I said "maybe not, there are some of those sick people coming." Andrea said pointing to the end of the parking lot.

There were ten or so sick people stumbling towards the mob at a decent pace. They all seemed clumsy, uncoordinated like drunks. It took the mob too long to realize the sick were there, by the time they noticed it was too late, people were being bitten, clawed at, and ripped apart by the sick. "What's happening?" Amrita asked peering over the edge for only a moment before putting a hand to her mouth and yakking over the edge of the roof. "Oh god, that's horrible." She said coughing a little.

"Now I think it'd be good if we all stay quiet now. Wait for everyone to leave." Mark said. I looked over the edge of the roof and saw the sick people eating those they'd taken down and the remaining members of the mob running away. "At least that mob is leaving." I said "but those sick people are sticking around." Josh said "how'll we get rid of them?" Nick asked. We all turned and looked to Mark expecting a plan.

"We wait them out." Mark said. "Sure." Amrita said walking to the shelter. Nick and Josh walked away to look at the building supplies we had to figure out what to do with them. After the others were occupied Andrea and I approached Mark "Mark, we only have enough energy drinks and water for a few days." I whispered "and the creek is half a mile away, and you saw what we'd need to get through to go there." Andrea whispered "we'll solve that problem when we need to," Mark said "and right now we have to get our camp settled here, we need to get comfortable. After we do that we can address our other problems." Mark said.

Mark walked away to help the Laneys with whatever they were building. "We need to find a safe source of water." Andrea said "yeah, and a source of food, we've got enough for a week or two, and the plants, but I'm no vegetarian, we need protein, when need meat." I said. "How far did you say the creek was again?" I asked "half a mile. Why?" she asked "I think we should go get water from there you know before all the stuff we got from here and Safeway runs out." I said.

She thought for a moment before replying "yeah we should. Do you think we should ask Mark?" she asked "no, I'll just say we're going to go scavenge for supplies. I don't think he'll argue." I said as I walked over to Mark. He was looking at some copper pipe and PVC pipe. He looked over his shoulder "what is it?" he asked "your sister and I were just gonna go out and scrounge for supplies, just thought we'd let you know." I said.

"Why? Those sick haven't left yet, we need everyone here, we have to get work done." He said "Mark, we're going to need fresh water eventually I don't want to have to get water when we run out of bottled water." I said "no, you two can't go." Mark said "we weren't asking, you aren't our leader, we can and will run ourselves." I said before picking up a ladder and waking to the opposite edge of the roof of the sick and setting up the ladder.

"Andrea you cannot go." Mark commanded "Mark we need that water, we need to find renewable sources of food, we can't stay on this roof forever!" Andrea yelled before grabbing a crowbar and climbing down the ladder. I quickly followed her and we began the walk to the creek.


	3. Chapter 3

I could hear dead leaves crunching under my feet, the trees rustling and the wing whistling through leaves. I had no clear line of sight more than a couple yards. I could hear running water nearby. I moved slowly from tree to tree, keeping in cover. There were creepers about three hundred yards back and if they knew I was here I was as good as dead.

The

Walking

Dead

"Alright, which way Andrea?" I asked "follow me." she replied as Amrita threw down a pack and some large water bottles. "We'll be back in a few hours." I said "Okay, be safe." She said before Andrea and I began walking to the creek.

We didn't talk at all, we just moved in silence. After half an hour of walking we got to the woods outside town. "How well do you know the woods here?" Andrea asked "pretty good, why?" answered curiously "we're taking an indirect route, there's a spring just off the main flow of the creek, the water is clean and pure." She said "I think I know where that spring is, it's three miles from here. With the creepers around that's a day's trip if we're careful." I said.

"I know." She replied "just checking." I said before we moved into the woods. We moved slowly and deliberately, each step we took was deliberate and light. Every leaf and twig that crunched under both our feet seemed like thunder.

I heard a rustle above me and I turned to see a squirrel "wish I could catch the son of a bitch." I said before Andrea and I moved on. The woods were dead quiet except for our footsteps and the occasional small animal running away from us. "I just wish a bird would chirp or something, this is getting creepy." I said "me too." Andrea responded.

After an hour we heard footsteps ahead and took cover behind some trees. We peered out from behind our trees and saw a squad of ten soldiers moving ahead of us. "hey-" Andrea began before I covered her mouth and hissed "SHHHHH!" she looked at me as though to ask why? "they may not be friendly." I whispered moving back to my tree.

"Sir, to the left of us." I heard a soldier say "oh crap." I cursed quietly "what'd we do?" Andrea whispered. "Stay put, hop they leave." I responded as quietly as possible. I tried to be as still as possible, to be as quiet as possible; I was terrified of what could happen if they found us.

I heard footsteps drawing nearer and nearer. My hand slowly went to my machete as I prepared for the worst. I heard the footsteps stop and then I heard screams. Andrea and I peeked out from behind our trees and saw the soldiers being attacked by sick "open fire, light em' up!" one man yelled.

The soldiers all began firing on the creepers, their shots hit them in the chest and lower torso but the sick didn't go down. Andrea and I gave each other a look as though to ask "what the hell?". The soldiers began to fall back when one of them was grabbed by three creepers and bitten on the neck, arms, and shoulder. He dropped his M4 and began to scream and flail his free arm and legs wildly.

"Andrea, if I distract those creeps could you get his pack and weapons?" I whispered Andrea looked at me with n expression of fear "what?" she asked "if those creeps were gone could you unbuckle his pack, flip him over, take his pack, grab his rifle and pistol, then take his spare clips?" I asked "you want me to loot that guys corpse while you distract those things, what about his squad?" Andrea questioned "we'll do it quietly." I said.

She thought for a moment before saying "yeah I think I could." I nodded. "on three I'll run out kick one of the sick, getting their attention, then I'll lead them away while you do your thing, I'll give the creeps the slip and then come back." I said "got it." Andrea said. I looked at the soldier's body and saw three creeps knowing at his neck and arms. I shuddered. "One. Two. Three." I said as I ran out while whispering three.

I sprinted at the nearest creep and kicked him in the side of the neck. He rolled over and began to get to his feet. The other two stood up and began shambling towards me. I backed away quick enough to keep out of reach, but slow enough to hold their attention. I began moving into the woods to give Andrea her window to grab the supplies from the corpse.

I had my machete at the ready to defend myself if necessary. I kept my awkward alternating walk then a short five meter sprint pace up for a minute or two before looking back to check on Andrea. I realized we hadn't worked on a signal for me to come back; I would have to keep looking back. I also hadn't figured out a way to lose the creeps.

I looked back and saw Andrea waving her arms for me to come back. I pointed to the creeps and moved to avoid the fast ones grasp. She made an arm motion imitating a baseball batter's swing. I didn't want to kill these people, they were sick; me killing them would be wrong, what if the C.D.C. found a cure? She continued to make the swinging motion. There had to be another way, there was some way to lose them, there had to be.

The sick weren't getting exhausted, they just kept coming after me, grunting, snapping, and snarling. The quick one reached for me and I sidestepped and swung my machete, his hands dropped to the ground. He wasn't even fazed by his hands being severed, he just kept coming. I swung again, this time at his temple; the top of his head just dropped off. He took one more step before falling, silent, still, dead.

I quickly dispatched the other two and hurried back to Andrea. "Great job, we got some loot." She said passing me the pack and the pistol. "Yeah, sure." I said as she handed me seven magazines for my new pistol.

We resumed our hike to the spring. Again neither of us spoke, partially out of the need for stealth, partially out of nothing to say, and for me out of guilt. We passed a few creeps, we didn't kill them, we just crept past them. We didn't want to waste our ammo. After three hours of walking and sneaking past numerous creeps we finally approached the creek.

I could hear dead leaves crunching under my feet, the trees rustling and the wing whistling through leaves. I had no clear line of sight more than a couple yards. I could hear running water nearby. We moved slowly from tree to tree, keeping in cover. There were creepers about three hundred yards back and if they knew we were here, we were as good as dead.

"Get the water bottles ready Andrea, we need to do this fast." I said "alright." Andrea said getting the water bottles open and ready to fill. We cautiously approached the creek and filled the bottles quickly. "Carl, are you alright?" Andrea asked "yeah. Why're you asking?" I asked "you're shaking." She replied. I looked at my hands and saw they were noticeably shaking. "I-I've never killed anyone before alright. I'm just a little rattled is all." I said "ok, I was just checking in, you don't have to talk about it." She said "thanks." I said.

I didn't want to talk about it, about the murder I committed, because talking didn't make the action I took go away, talking didn't make me anything less than a murderer. That is what I was, a murderer of circumstance, forced to kill someone because I couldn't see any alternatives. I murdered three people because I was too dumb to think of a way around killing them. I was a weak, stupid, low, monster. That was what I was. A monster.


	4. Chapter 4

Run. Run. Run. This was what my mind told me to do. I had to escape school, the sick were everywhere, they had come out of nowhere and started attacking for no reason. I had to run, I had to get out of here, and I had to do it now.

The

Walking

Dead

Andrea and I quietly made our way back to the Orchard supply. When we got back the sun was starting to set and we could see Mark on the roof pacing nervously. Andrea waved to him and he visibly relaxed; once we were closer they put the ladder down for us and we climbed up to the roof. Mark hugged Andrea before scolding her "you should have warned me you would be gone that long." He said visibly still upset.

"Whoa, where'd you get the guns?" Josh asked "A dead soldier." Andrea replied "they sent the army in, hmm." Nick said with an odd expression. I moved away from the conversation and unbuckled my pack and machete sheath. Then I removed my new pistol from my pocket and set it with my stuff. "Are you okay?" Amrita asked quietly I grabbed my machete and slightly unsheathed it showing her the dried blood on the blade. "What do you think?" I asked "you killed the soldier?" she asked "no, three sick. I murdered three people." I said "Carl, these sick are not normal, they've been violent, attacked people, what you did was in self defense, it must've been."Amrita said.

"No, it wasn't, I just couldn't figure out a way to get away from them and I resorted to murder." I said "Carl, please don't blame yourself, you're a nice guy, I don't want you to beat yourself up like this, please." She said before walking over and talking with the others. They were all talking about supplies weapons, and how to deal with sick and hostile people. I didn't want any part of this right now, I just wanted to wait for this to pass and go on with my life, I just wanted the government or police to solve this and return to how things were, boring was better than depressing in my mind.

_**THREE WEEKS LATER:**_

Things haven't gotten better, if anything they're worse, since three weeks ago we've gotten four new additions to our group. Stephanie, or Steph, a girl with dirty blonde hair, glasses and a bit of a know-it-all indignant attitude. Colin, a cop's son, he called himself the token black guy in the apocalypse, but he's anything but token; he has been friendly and helpful since he showed up, he brought a good number of guns, he taught us to use the guns we have effectively, he was good natured and genuinely friendly to everyone. Gabby, Colin's girlfriend, she had dark blonde hair, and was the smallest of all of us; she was helpful enough as she was a good lookout, helped with chores, and was cooperative. Lastly was Nathan Li, he was the most recent to show up and was one of the people I got along with the best, he was the person I picked to watch mine and Andrea's backs on scouting missions, he was reliable, loyal, and quick thinking.

I was inspecting my crossbow which I had acquired a week ago when I heard a commotion on one side of the roof and Amrita walked up to me with one hand on her temple "Steph's having a moment again." She said sitting down in one of now three shelters we had on the roof "I'll see what I can do." I said walking over to see what was going on.

"I don't see why I have to wash clothes? Why don't you do it Mark? Why doesn't a boy do the laundry?" she asked aggressively "the Laney's did the laundry last time, we aren't forcing the girls to just do chores, we all have to do a job and today the laundry-" mark said before being interrupted "I haven't seen Gabby doing chores, or Amrita, all Gabby does is sit it her little chair and watch the parking lot, and I don't even know what Amrita-" Steph said before I interrupted "she handles the rationing of food and water. Be a little nicer or you may get smaller portions at dinner tonight." I said.

"What do you do crossbow boy? What?" Steph asked "I hunt and scavenge for supplies." I said "but never laundry, or dishes, or cooking." She said "actually I skin and cook what I kill thank you, unless you'd like to do that job." I said. "Well you've skinned a total of three rabbits then, such a contribution. And no I'll pass." Steph said "if you don't like it here then you're welcome to leave, really, you aren't a prisoner here, you're a member of the community-" Mark began "community? This is just a bunch of teenagers on a roof Mark, that's all. We are not a community or society by any standards." Steph said. I gave up and walked away.

I sat in the shelter with Amrita and let out a frustrated sigh. "She always thinks there's some sexist regime here, no matter what she's doing." Amrita said "like the time she, Nathan and I went scouting and she didn't get a shotgun, I only had a crossbow and pistol cause' my machete was being used by Josh. She had a crowbar, and a pistol. And Nathan had a cricket bat. That's all. And she complained we were better armed than her. Cause we were guys, really?" I questioned.

"She's just trouble." Amrita said "I know, but we can't just kick her out. Then she'll be bitter, well more bitter than she already is and want to get even." I said. "Well, she's just going to have to deal with some chores she doesn't like then." Amrita said. "Nathan and Andrea are back!" Gabby called out.

Amrita and I got up and grabbed a ladder to let them up. When they climbed up they had a new duffel bag with them. "What's in the duffel Nathan?" I asked "something awesome." He said "check this out." Andrea said getting Mark. They unzipped the duffel bag to reveal dozens of cans of food and vitamins, medical supplies, and a few boxes of ammo.

"Holy crap, where'd you two find this?" Mark asked "it was in an abandoned car a mile or two from here, we found this and came back immediately." Nathan said "I guess this beats my finding the crossbow." I said "by like a thousand." Andrea said jokingly. We put all the supplies in the appropriate container or box and went back to work.

I was maintaining my weapons, Amrita was sorting food, Gabby was on watch, Colin was getting some sleep because he had the night shift tonight, Andrea and Mark looked at some maps of the area and planned scrounging missions, the Laney's were building a work bench out of some of the last of the lumber we had, Nathan was unpacking his stuff, and Steph was complaining about laundry.

The day was like most days were now. Work was all we really did, since the new kids showed up we've had to work twice as hard to keep going. Recently we've been having trouble finding any supplies at all, meal portions are small, and no one eats enough. The garden can't support all ten of us, neither can the environment, we've scrounged all that was left from the food stores around here and hunting isn't able to feed all of us because of our poor hunting skills.

As it grew dark Colin woke from his sleep and prepared to take over watch duty. We all ate dinner before setting up the three shelters for the night. Everyone began choosing spots in each shelter, grabbing their sleeping bags which we'd found over a week ago. People were laughing and sitting with their friends. Except me, I didn't stay in shelters in any of the shelters, I hadn't since the first day I had killed the sick, I didn't trust myself around other people with confidence, I slept under a wool blanket on a sleeping pad fifteen feet away near the garden boxes.

The others don't understand why I distance myself; they just thought I was a little crazy. They didn't get it was because I cared about them, because I didn't trust myself enough when I was asleep, when I wasn't in control, to be near them, where I had the possibility of harming them. None of them fully understood, the people who were the closest to understanding were Nathan and Amrita, they got that I was nervous, they got I didn't want them to get hurt. But they still missed that it was me I was protecting them from.

I was almost asleep, my eyes were closed and I was drifting away when I felt something touch my shoulder. I rolled to the side to get away from it but again it touched my shoulder. "Carl, Carl wake up. It's going to get pretty cold tonight; you have to come in one of the shelters or you'll get sick." Amrita said. I opened my eyes and saw her face, her expression screamed concern. "No, it's not safe." I said "Carl, what's not safe is you sleeping by yourself every night in the cold, isolating yourself from us." Amrita said "no, I-I can't be around other people, I might hurt you." I said.

"How Carl, you'll be asleep. Unarmed and asleep." She said "I-I, I don't want to take the chance-" I began "Carl, you've been taking chances for over two weeks, this is nothing compared to the other things you've done." Amrita said grabbing me by the arm and pulling me up. "Grab your blanket and come to the shelter with us." She ordered "fine." I muttered grabbing only my blanket and pad before walking over to the shelters.

The first two where almost full, everyone got plenty of space in whichever shelter they slept in now that there were three shelters. The third shelter was empty except for one sleeping bag. Amrita climbed into her sleeping bag in the third shelter and looked at me. "Pick anywhere you want to sleep, just be comfortable." She said before closing her eyes. I decided to sleep sitting against the side of the third shelter, as far from Amrita, as far from everyone as I could be, and went to sleep.

The next morning I woke up early and silently made my way over to my supplies by the garden boxes and relieved Colin of sentry duty so he could get some sleep. An hour later most of the others started to get up; Andrea, Steph and Josh were the last to wake up almost forty-five minutes later.

Amrita walked over to me and sat next to my chair "how'd you sleep?" she asked "no better than usual." I replied "but no worse either?" she asked "no, no worse." I said "maybe tonight you could actually sleep in the shelter." She said. I grinned "yeah, maybe." I said, to be honest, I was pleasantly surprised to be wrong. I wasn't going to hurt anyone in my sleep; I wasn't a danger to the group.

"Hey Carl, I was thinking you, Andrea, and I could go scavenging in about thirty minutes." Nathan said walking over. I was about to say I was on sentry duty before Amrita spoke "I can take over lookout duty for you, just give me a rifle and I'll be fine." I nodded "have you ever even fired gun?" Nathan asked "no, but I probably won't have to." she said quietly.

Nathan went and grabbed a 22 rim fire rifle we had and handed it to Amrita before I got out of the chair and grabbed my weapons. "Good luck." She said before Nathan, Andrea and I put down a ladder and climbed to the ground. "So which way?" I asked "we're going to head towards the school, we've stayed away from that place for this whole thing, it's a good bet there're supplies there still." Andrea said "I don't know, we've stayed away for a reason, almost all the creeps that we see come from that general direction." I said "Carl, I understand your concerns man, but we need those supplies. We'll have to get them sooner or later, I'd prefer it be sooner." Nathan said.

I nodded in agreement and we set off towards the school. I remembered the last time I'd walked this path well, Andrea, Mark, the Laneys, and Amrita and I had run down this road to get to the orchard supply the first day of this nightmare. This walk was like a horrible piece of déjà vu for me, and it must have been for Andrea to.

"You two are awfully quiet." Nathan commented. Neither Andrea nor I responded. "Well, I guess we're not having a great conversation this time." He said. When we got to the school gates we began to move much differently than when we were trying to cover ground, our pace slowed down considerable, we all made sure to pick up our feet when we walked, we made sure each step was carefully, silently placed on the ground, and we each gave each other room to maneuver while maintaining a tight enough group that we could still help someone if they needed it.

We moved towards the cafeteria silently. When the cafeteria was in sight I saw something I wasn't expecting. There were dozens of people patrolling the cafeteria, quad, and the gym. All of them were armed, either with firearms or an improvised weapon like a bat.

"Whoa, this is new." Nathan said "Andrea, what do we do?" I asked "how should I know, this is the first other survivor group we've seen." She replied. "Maybe we should be friendly, approach them very calmly." Nathan said "not all of us, we should have one person hang back in case they take the other two hostage." Andrea said "I'll hang back." I said. Andrea and Nathan nodded in agreement "Nathan, you should do the talking." Andrea said "alright, just keep your hand on your rifle in case it goes south." Nathan said.

"I'll get to the roof of the theater, it doesn't seem like they're using it and it has a good view of the quad." I said "alright, we'll give you some time to get into place before going to try and talk with them." Andrea said. "Good luck man." Nathan said before I began silently making my way towards the theater.

I used the hallways for cover, the hallway roof gave me cover from being spotted by people and let me get close to the wheelchair ramp around back of the theater. When I got to the ramp I saw one man with a baseball bat "guarding" it. He was asleep sitting in a chair with his bat by his feet. I moved slowly and silently up the ramp. There were three crates on the ramp, I figured they were supplies.

I hid behind the last crate before the guard, who was still out cold. I quietly moved behind the guard to put him in a sleeper hold. Once I was in position I moved quietly and swiftly, my arm was around his neck in an instant, I used my other hand to quickly jab him in the Adam's apple. After a minute he stopped struggling and his body relaxed. I kept my hold for another thirty seconds, maybe longer, before dragging him behind the crates and throwing a tarp that was in a nearby box over him.

I quickly went up to the end of the ramp where there was a railing that allowed me to climb to the roof and pulled myself up. Once on the hallway roof I climbed the ladder to the theater's roof and quickly hid behind an air conditioning unit. On the other side of the roof, only thirty feet away was a man with a rifle.

The man was wearing a black jacket, jeans, and had brown hair like me and was around my size. I had to do this quick, but if I took him out I could take his rifle and pose as him. I assumed on the other roofs there were more sentries and that they were keeping tabs on each other every now and then.

I had to do this fast I had to grab him, put him in the sleeper hold, get him knocked out, immobilize him, grab his rife, and stand in for him. I had to do all of this silently, or else I was screwed. Just as I was about to spring into action an airhorn sounded "people on the quad!" someone yelled. I almost tripped but I stopped myself just in time to avoid bumping into the air conditioner. I looked at the sentry and saw he was looking at the quad, I assumed the others were too.

This was when I sprung into action, I silently moved behind the man and got a firm grip around his neck and dropped to the ground, pulling him with me. He tried to roll over so as to be on top of me but I spread my legs to about shoulder width to give myself a wider base. I tightened my hold on his neck, he made wheezing and grunting sounds as he struggled against me. I maintained my hold, but knew if the other sentries looked over and didn't see this son of a bitch they'd raise the alarm.

Finally he was calming down; he began to struggle less frequently, and when he did it as barely a fight he put up. After what seemed like eternity he relaxed and slipped into unconciseness. I quickly kicked him in the head before dragging him behind the air conditioner, setting my crossbow down at my feet, and picking up his rifle. I looked at the quad and saw Andrea and Nathan talking with the people, Nathan was obviously doing most of the talking as he was gesturing wildly; something he did when he was in a casual conversation.

Andrea was standing next to him, trying to look menacing with her M4 and not to laugh at Nathan's ridiculous gestures. He was cracking the other people up, they weren't concerned with looking menacing, they were being quite friendly actually. I began to wonder if I had gone too far knocking the two guys unconscious. I decided to take my weapons and go, I slung the rifle over my shoulder and grabbed my crossbow, I hurried to the ladder and climbed down as quietly as possible.

I made my way along the hallway roofs towards the library lawn, which was clear of people when we had entered the school. When I arrived I saw seven sick stumbling around on the lawn aimlessly. I got low down, as close to the roof as I could get and crawled on all fours along the halls looking for another way down, I finally saw an open lawn far enough from the creeps to hop down to.

I leapt down and landed in a squat and silently made my way back to where the others and I had been hiding a few minutes ago. From here I had a bad view of Andrea and Nathan; there was a chain link fence in the way and some cars and crates. I only waited for a few minutes before another airhorn sounded and someone yelled something I couldn't quite make out. I heard screaming and yelling.

[This was my fault, they'd found the two guys I knocked out, or one of them woke up, or both of them; I just caused this whole scouting mission to go wrong.] I thought. I heard gunfire start, and looked up to see Nathan and Andrea backing away while laying down moderate suppressing fire. The people at the school were also dealing with some creepers that the commotion attracted.

Nathan and Andrea ran away from the new battle that was beginning on the quad. When they got to me Andrea shot me a look of frustration and bewilderment. "When we get home we're talking Carl!" Andrea yelled as we ran back to orchard supply.

We booked it back to the orchard supply; we didn't want to give those people a chance to pick up our trail. As we arrived the ladder was put down for us and we all climbed up. "Put out the cooking fire! Pull down the lookout chair! Get everything that's in sight from the street level out of sight now!" Andrea barked.

Everyone moved quickly, grabbing and moving things to the center of the roof, things that wouldn't fit there and could be tilted on their side were. Our shelters had to be tipped over and put in the very center of the roof.

"What happened?" Mark asked "ask dumbass over there!" Andrea yelled "Carl, what did you do?" mark asked giving me a look of disappointment. "When we got to the school there was another group of people there, we decided that Nathan and Andrea would talk with them and see if they were hostile and I would keep them covered from the roof of the theater. I had to knock out two guys to get there to provide overwatch, I bugged out when I felt I was in more danger than was needed, and a few minutes later the shit hit the fan, I'm guessing that they found the two guys I knocked out and that set them off." I said answering Mark.

He shook his head disapprovingly and scowled at me. Steph simply glared at me. Colin and Gabby both shook their heads before hiding by the lip of the roof. Nick and Josh didn't look directly at me and had expressions of disgust on their faces. Amrita looked at me with an expression of fear, disappointment, and disbelief. I tried to avoid eye contact with her as I passed by and hid behind the lip of the roof.

Later that day a group of people passed by, Nathan and Andrea confirmed it was the people from the school. The rest of the day no one would even talk to me, let alone be within ten feet of me. When it came time to sleep the others all slept in a group, but refused to let me sleep in the group. I was forced to sleep fifteen feet away under my wool blanket. I felt alone.


	5. Chapter 5

The next morning I woke up and walked to the far side of the roof, I knew the others would want me as far from them as possible. I was an absolute idiot for what I'd done at the school, if I hadn't knocked those two guys out that whole situation may have gone differently, we could have been allies. Now I've caused my group a world of trouble, less than two miles away we have a hostile group, and it's all my fault.

The

Walking

Dead

I just felt alone, it was all my fault. I was alone because of what I did, it was my fault. I was completely lost in my mind, so lost that I didn't notice Amrita walking over to me. "Carl, can we talk?" Amrita asked "why would you want to talk to me?" I asked, not daring to look at her. "Because I want to know what happened, and why you'd do the things you did?" she asked "I-I, I didn't think, I just did, I was nervous and I didn't think when I acted, I was an absolute idiot." I replied.

"No, no. Carl, what you did may not have been the best thing to do, it was your instinct." Amrita said I didn't reply, I still didn't dare to look at her. "Carl, we're teenagers, we act on our impulses, it's part of growing up, learning to resist those urges." She said "but my first impulse was to attack, to harm those people, that's not what I want to be, I don't want to be some mindlessly violent person." I said.

"See Carl, you want to fight those impulses, you don't want to be that aggressive, dangerous guy. That's why I still believe you're a good person, because you want to be good." Amrita said "Amrita, How? How can you trust me still, just tell me that." I asked "because I want to believe you're a good person, I want to believe people are still good, are still human, that's how I can still trust, how I can still care about you, and about mankind." She said.

"Thank you, thank you so much." I said "Carl, everything will work out, I promise." She said before she took two steps toward me and hugged me and without thinking I hugged her back. Suddenly I heard footsteps and Amrita and I looked over and saw Nathan groggily walking past carrying a cup of water and a toothbrush "oh, um, sorry to interrupt." He said when he saw us "uh, it's alright man." I said "okay." he shrugged before walking to the parking lot edge of the roof and brushing his teeth.

Amrita and I looked at each other and began to laugh quietly so as not to wake the others. "Well, I guess we'd better start working on some chores." Amrita said "yeah, I guess." I said before we both released the other from our arms and we walked over to all of the camp stuff that had to be moved to the center of the roof and began putting it back where it was supposed to be. As we went about moving benches and chairs the others woke up.

The Laneys began to help when they woke up. It took five of us to flip the shelters right side up, and it took two of us to set up the sentry chair and platform again. After twenty minutes of work our roof was finally back to the way it was before yesterday.

Andrea took sentry duty and Gabby and Colin took inventory of food and weapons. Almost everyone was avoiding me, all except Nathan and Amrita. Nathan walked over to Mark to talk to him "hey Mark is it alright if Carl, Amrita, and I go on a scouting mission, further south. I figure we're going to need to find a new location soon." He said. "Sure, but why not take Andrea, she's more experienced." Mark asked "I figured Amrita could use the experience, we're all going to need to know how to handle creepers soon." Nathan said "alright, go ahead then." Mark said. "We'll be gone at least a full day, maybe two." Nathan said before grabbing his pack and weapons so Mark didn't have time to say no to the scouting mission.

Amrita and I took the hint and quickly grabbed our backpacks and weapons and quickly put down a ladder. "Not gonna be heartbroken if only two of them come back." I heard Steph say before I was out of earshot "just ignore her." Amrita whispered. "I will, don't worry, I don't give a shit what she thinks." I said before we began walking east.

Nathan walked ahead of us and amrita and I walked side by side in silence. We walked for awhile, further than we ever had before. We started to approach the open pastures of the six or seven small farms outside town. "Where're the cows?" Amrita asked "probably eaten by creepers. Maybe in a barn." I said "I like the optimistic option." Nathan said.

Amrita began to walk out into the field before I grabbed her arm and pulled her back. We were within inches of each other, just looking at the other for a second "Ahem." Nathan coughed "don't go into the open, you're likely to get shot." I said "got it, stay in cover, wide open spaces equal bad things happening." Amrita said. We moved to get to a small grove of trees and began to move deep into the farmland, there was a good two miles per farm and we wanted to move in to see if it was clear, of creepers and living.

After a long time walking, and a few times, crawling through grass, we came to the fourth homestead and were starting to get tired. "Can we check out that house?" Amrita asked "yeah, I think it'd be a good idea." I said. "Who's going to scout?" Nathan asked "I was thinking Carl and I would go in." Amrita said. Nathan looked at us for a second before grinning and chuckling "alright, you kids have fun, just remember to get me if it's clear." He said.

Amrita and I moved towards the house quietly, and stopped by a small group of trees. "Amrita, I just want to give you a few tips, watch your corners, remember to keep your head on a swivel, and don't hesitate to shoot if you think that something's a threat." I said "got it." She said "alright, then on three we'll go." I said.

"Are you going to count to three?" Amrita asked after a silence "I was actually waiting for you to count, you know chivalry and all." I said "haven't you heard, chivalry died two centuries ago." She joked smiling. Her smile was amazing; she could do anything with that smile. It was a sun that shone on the world whenever this one, amazing, beautiful, funny, and sweet girl felt happy. "Alright, since you insist." I said "one, two, three." I counted before we ran towards the house.

We stopped on the porch and I looked at the outside layout, it was obviously one floor, probably four, maybe five rooms, other than that I had no clue what to expect. I tried the doorknob first, it squeaked as it turned but the door opened.

We entered silently and began to move in before I heard the sound of a gun being cocked "look at the ground then freeze, both of you." A voice said. We both froze and pointed our weapons at the ground "now set down your weapons." The man ordered I gently set down my crossbow and machete. Amrita dropped her baseball bat and rifle on the floor loudly. Now stand still width your feet at shoulder width apart, arms out to the side and close your eyes." He ordered. We did as he ordered and stood side by side and closed our eyes.

I heard a patting sound "hello!" Amrita said surprised. After a minute he began patting me down, the first pat was the outside of my right calf and he stopped, pulled up my pant leg and took my large buck sheath knife. I waited for my chance, he patted down both calves, and then he went to pat the inside of my leg. At the first pat I squeezed my legs together to trap his hand, then I dropped to my right side and rolled away, drawing my pistol as I did.

I looked him in the eyes, the barrel of my gun aimed between his eyes. He too had a sidearm drawn and trained on me. "Don't move or I'll shoot." he said, then Amrita put the barrel of her gun to his temple "even think about pulling that trigger or I'll splatter the wall with your brains." She threatened. The man was a soldier by the looks of him, he had an army helmet on, all his clothes were covered in digital camo, he had combat boots on and sunglasses.

"Let's start over, I'm Carl, this is Amrita, what's your name?" I asked with my gun still aimed at his face "captain William Tabor." He said "how about we all put our guns away and we talk like civilized people." Amrita said "that sounds good." Will said "I don't know, I like having the upper hand." I said. Amrita shot me a look "alright, fine." I said holstering my pistol.

Will holstered his as well and Amrita lowered her rifle. "I'll get Nathan." I said walking to the doorway and waving. "So how long have you been here?" Amrita asked "three days, my squad was taken down a few weeks ago, the damned infected just took most of them out, they never fucking stop man." He said. I felt a stab of guilt hearing this; I took supplies from one of this guy's squadmates, his friend.

"Three weeks ago, were you near the creek?" I asked "yeah, that was the first time we had a run-in with them, one of my squadmates, Lawrence went down, I went back about a week ago to get some ammo and maybe some guns and food but his pack and weapons were gone." Will said "yeah, I saw that, I have his pistol and mags, I still have only fired the damn thing like, five times." I said. Will looked at me for a second, for only a second with a look of anger, or disdain. "I'm glad his stuff went to use, keep the gun." He said "thanks, and I wasn't ever intending to give it up." I replied.

After Nathan came inside and Will invited us to have dinner with him we all set our stuff down and looked for places to sleep. There were two bedrooms and a couch, Nathan, Amrita, and I played rock-paper, scissors to see who got where. Amrita got the free bedroom and Nathan got the couch, leaving me with the floor.

We all began to relax a little and do our own thing. Nathan and Will talked about stuff they missed, technology, foods, places; that sort of thing, they also traded supplies. Amrita and I did a walk around the fence of the farm. "So Amrita, I've known you for three weeks and still I know nothing about you before all this happened." I said "not much to tell. And you've been pretty quiet about yourself too." She said.

"Well honestly, it's a sad story and I couldn't bear to make you or anyone else listen to my sob-story." I said "fair, and truthfully, my life wasn't too happy either." She replied "then we're the perfect people to tell each other, both of us have baggage." I said "maybe, but can you go first?" she asked. "sure." I said as we surveyed our surroundings.

"Before this happened, when I was eight, my parents divorced. They didn't do a good job delivering the news and I lost trust in them for years. Five years ago my mom remarried, I had no problem with the guy she married, just his kids. Three horrid monsters, two brothers and a sister, all were rude, selfish and self-absorbed. My actual brother was a lazy stoner; he always had my mom worked up about his schoolwork." I said. "wow, that seems terrible." Amrita said "oh it gets worse." I said.

"My mom was a woman with some serious anger issues, never in my life had she gone a week without a tantrum about something. My dad lived in a trailer and so did I every other week, he was kinda the opposite, I rarely saw him angry, but when he was angry he was much scarier than mom. But he never laid a hand on me, and man sometimes I was asking for it. I never doubted he love me. ever." I said.

Something changed with Amrita at the mention of my dad; she seemed to bottle something, to hold something back. "That's really it. What was your life like?" I asked "well, I had a mom, she was a incredibly loving woman, she treated the whole world like family, an older sister; she loved me, ever since I was born, she always wanted to spend time with me, hold me, read to me, and I loved her just as much, and my dad, my dad loved me and my sister so much, whenever he saw us he couldn't help but smile, he would always take time off work to be with us, he'd pretend to be sick to stay home, he-he, he was an amazing person. My mom and dad were always around when we needed them, they tucked us in at night, read to us, played games with us, we were the ideal family." She said tearing up.

"Then when I was ten, my dad died of cancer; he'd kept it secret from my sister and I for as long as possible. When he told us we didn't know how to take it, we thought the doctors could fix it, could save our dad. They couldn't, he died surrounded by his family, I just shut down for awhile, for a year I was just unreachable emotionally. My sister was the one that brought me out of it, she was so strong." She said.

I couldn't find the words to say, I just couldn't. "after my sister helped me through that year I tried to ignore the pain, fill my life with stuff to do, sports, plays, singing, friends, family; anything to distract myself from what was going on inside." She said. "I understand the feeling, I just did my best to avoid facing the problem, I still haven't really faced it yet." I said. "I just can't fully accept he's gone sometimes, I just can't." she said.

"It's about time we head back to the farmhouse, it's getting dark." I said. Amrita nodded silently and we began to walk back. We didn't say a thing on the walk to the house; we just walked side by side, trying to stuff down the memories of how our lives were. We both just wanted to forget, we wanted to forget before, even though the world now is terrible, our lives before were painful to live.

We took each other's hand and walked in silence. The sun was setting over the west hills and our shadows stretched out far ahead of us. Crickets began chirping, birds sang the last songs of the day, and light began to dim.

When we got back to the farmhouse Nathan was sitting in the porch with his P90 submachine gun and on watch. "So how's the perimeter?" he asked grinning like an idiot "good, the fence is still intact." I said "why're you grinning like an idiot?" amrita asked. "No reason." Nathan replied, still grinning.

We went inside and sat down at a table, Will set the table and opened a drawer. "Are Cheerios alright?" he asked "yeah, sounds great." I said "who would've thought cheerios would be considered a good dinner." Nathan joked "not me." Amrita said. We all found a bowl and filled it with cheerios.

We all ate with our hands, not stopping to talk. This was the largest meal in a week for my friends and I. when we finished eating we sat around the table and talked. "so Carl, I've known you for a little over a week but I know nothing about who you were before this crap happened." Nathan said "yeah, I don't like to talk about it really." I said "as a matter of fact, I know the least about the two of you out of our whole group." He said.

"Well, we just don't like talking about before too much." Amrita said "not like I can force you to talk about it." Nathan said. "We don't know too much about you either dude, just that you had a brother and parents. That's about it." I said "it's still more than I know about both of you combined." He joked. Will looked at us with a look of puzzlement "how do you guys work as a unit, you know so little about each other. I knew the names of all my squadmates immediate family members, their hometown, all that shit, we all did." he commented.

"We just work differently I guess." Amrita said. We talked for another half hour before Nathan and Will went to sleep. Amrita and I sat a talked for awhile before we both began to get tired "well, I'd better find a nice part of floor to sleep on." I said "well, you could sleep in my room, I don't mind." She said.

This caught me off guard, we just started to really get to know each other, I didn't know what to do. "Um, sure." I said walking with to her room with her. The bed wasn't too big, but we'd both fit on it. "This is the first night in over three weeks we're going to spend in an actual bed." She said in disbelief "I don't think I remember what it's like." I joked. We each took off our shoes and jackets and got under the blankets and tried to relax. We were both out cold within minutes of lying down.

I woke in the morning after having a dream about my life before the creepers, before society collapsed. I wasn't happier with my life; the life I saw in my dream was exactly like the one that died just over three weeks ago, it was almost a nightmare.

I woke up at around six-thirty AM to Amrita, still asleep, seconds later she woke. "morning." She said "morning." I replied; we each got up and began to look through some drawers to see if there were any clothes we could take. I found a Blue jacket with a hood and numerous pockets and Amrita found a brown jacket with an eagle logo on the back. We found a few new tee shirts and jeans as well as some new socks.

We quickly put our old clothes in our packs and changed into some new clothes. We walked to the living room and snuck past a still sleeping Nathan. We grabbed our weapons and sat on the front porch. Amrita rested her head on my shoulder as we watched the sun rise.

It was something you'd never expect in a world like this, just a quiet moment of beauty and serenity. The birds were beginning to sing, and dewdrops were evaporating off the grass into steam that lazily floated away.

When Nathan woke up we left, we didn't bother to wake Will to say goodbye, we just left. "So are we heading back to home or are we exploring a bit further?" Amrita asked "I think we'll go a few more miles east, then turn around and haul back home." Nathan said.

We walked to the road and followed it until we reached some houses. We each picked a house and raided it. I entered a two story house, after searching the top floors and finding nothing useful I went to the basement. There I found a large metal box, inside were a few cardboard boxes and I quickly opened them to find ammo.

I was overjoyed, I stuffed as many boxes into my pack as I could fit, I began loading bullets into mags and putting them into my pockets, and there was still more. I used the duct tape in my pack to tape boxes of ammo to my backpack. I hurried outside to tell Amrita and Nathan. I went into one house and grabbed Amrita, and then we ran and got Nathan.

"What, what have you found Carl?" Amrita asked "something amazing, we'll be able feed our group, defend ourselves, fight off creepers." I said purposefully building suspense "seriously man, what is it?" Nathan asked as the three of us walked down the stairs to the basement.

"This is what I found." I said pointing at the large box of ammo and gun accessories. "Holy shit!" Nathan exclaimed "I know man." I replied "Carl, how're we gonna get this home?" Amrita asked. I then pointed to my pack, which had numerous ammo boxes duct taped on, then I threw them the roll of tape. "we better hurry up and get as much as we can carry, then really haul ass back home, and see what ammo we got here." Nathan said.

Amrita and I were already taping ammo boxes to her pack and loading some magazines to make it easier to carry the ammo. After they each had as much ammo and other things, like scopes, as they could carry in and taped to their backpacks we left the house and hurried home.

As we approached the orchard supply we were all overjoyed. "Did you two notice that nothing went wrong, we didn't even see a single creeper." Nathan said "dude, sometimes things do go according to plan actually." I said "we should be happy; we're bringing back some new clothes and ammo." Amrita said. The others put the ladder down and we all climbed up to the roof.

We all were smiling, but when we saw the group we were puzzled. All of them had an expression of sorrow, they looked depressed. "What's wrong?" Amrita asked "they took my sister." Mark said "what?" I asked "who, who took her?" Nathan asked "THOSE PEOPLE YOU ATTACKED! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" Mark yelled moving to punch me "Mark no!" the Laneys said holding him back "that won't get Andrea back." Josh said.

This was all my fault, if I hadn't attacked those people Andrea wouldn't have been kidnapped. I caused this, and I wasn't even here to try and stop them. I had to help get her back, I was responsible for this, I had to fix this.


	6. Chapter 6

Everyone felt defeated, broken, hurt. Me, I just felt guilty, this was my stupidity thrown back at me, and Andrea's kidnapping was my fault. I would get her back, she was my friend, and I had let her down, then I got her kidnapped. I would have to make things right.

The

Walking

Dead

"Oh my god." Amrita said "Mark, we'll get her back, I promise." Nathan said putting a hand on Mark's shoulder. I didn't have the guts to say a damned thing; I didn't want to make things worse. "What happened?" I finally asked "some people with guns came outa nowhere, forced us to surrender, then took Andrea as payback for the injury of one of their guys, and the death of another one." Mark said not holding back the contempt and hatred in his voice.

"Mark, I promise you, I'll get your sister back, I promise." I said "what exactly happened? When they told you why they took her?" Amrita asked "they first asked who killed one of their guys, and injured another, we didn't answer, one of them recognized Andrea, not as the killer, but as being there. He tied her hands and feet, and said they'll be back to find the killer, and we shouldn't stop them or they'll kill all of us." Colin said.

"Wait, I killed someone, did they say who or anything?" I asked suddenly feeling even more guilt. "No, they didn't say any details, sorry." Colin replied, I walked to one shelter and sat down. I buried my face in my hands and tried not to cry. "Carl, this wasn't your-" Amrita began "it is my fault, it is Amrita, I brought this on us. I got my friend kidnapped, I caused this situation." I said.

"Carl, whatever you do, please be careful." She said "I'll try." I said before getting everyone's attention "everyone, we can't wait for those people to come back. We have to solve this now, tonight I'm going to go and try to get Andrea back, anyone else who's in talk to me." I said.

I looked through the ammo and magazines to find some that matched my pistol, I stuffed ten mags in my pockets. I found a scope and checked to see if I could put it on my crossbow. "Carl, I'm in." Colin said "alright, find the ammo you need." I said. Colin and I each loaded weapons and got two packs ready with painkillers, gauze, medical tape, and antibiotics.

"Carl, I'm in too." Nathan said "no you're not." I replied "what? Dude you'll need all the help you can get!" he said "you're right, I need you to help me by staying here, guard these people, and right now you have the most level head here. I need you to guard these people, to keep them thinking, make sure they don't go crazy. And please, keep Amrita safe; don't let anything happen to her." I said.

Nathan nodded "I'll keep her safe, I promise." He said "thank you bro." I said. "Colin look in some of the boxes of gun accessories, see if there are some suppressers." I ordered "on it." He replied. "Carl, what are you going to do?" Amrita asked "I'm going to try and free Andrea, and then I'll try and take down as many of their fighters as possible, regardless of rescuing Andrea." I answered.

"Carl, please, try and be safe, try and negotiate." She pleaded "they've made it pretty clear they won't negotiate with us, they said they'll kill us all. This has to end." I said. "But people don't have to die!" she yelled "you're doing what you were afraid of, being a mindless violent monster!" her word stung, they were like a physical blow.

"Amrita, leave me alone." I said "no, I won't. Carl this is a senseless risk! I won't let you do this!" she yelled "You can stop me?" I asked "Can you, you don't control me! You don't!" I yelled standing up. She took a step back and turned and walked away, crying. Everyone on the roof looked at me frozen where they were "WHAT?" I yelled.

"Carl, calm down, just get ready for the rescue." Nathan said before walking towards everyone "alight people back to getting ready for tonight! We need to be able to defend ourselves. Laneys, sharpen some stuff and line the perimeter of the roof, make some boards with nails sticking out and put them there. I want them to be stopped as soon as they set a foot on the roof!" he ordered.

"Gabby get some gloves and barbed wire, put it along the sections of roof we can't put spikeboards at. Steph, Amrita, Mark, start moving the gardens and food to the center of the, move the shelters into defensive positions, cover any place we don't have wire or spikes." He continued ordering before joining in the work himself.

Colin and I packed a 22 rifle, a pistols each, our melee weapons, a few knives, and a multi tool each in our backpacks. We packed ammo before we picked clothes to wear. I picked a black tee shirt, hooded jacket, jeans, gloves, and I spray painted a painter's mask black. Colin picked similar clothes except he had a ski mask and sunglasses.

When night finally began to fall we prepped to leave, Colin and Gabby kissed and held each other close. I stood by the ladder, waiting impatiently to leave. Amrita was at the center of the roof with a new rifle on guard duty. I was going to talk to her, but decided not to. "Colin, are you ready to go?" I asked "yeah." He said "Gabby, I promise, I'll be back, alive and well." He told her "I swear if you don't come back I'll kick your ass." She said almost crying.

"I'm coming with you." Mark said "what?" I asked "Andrea's my sister; I'm going to help get her back." He said putting on a backpack and grabbing a shotgun before climbing down the ladder. "great." I mumbled climbing down after him. I was followed by Colin.

We moved quickly, we needed to reach the school when it got dark, when their eyes were still adjusting to the darkness. We would be able to move more freely and we would have a better chance of picking off people without being noticed.

We arrived at the school and hid by the library. "Mark, remember this is about stealth. Stay hidden and Andrea has a better chance of living." I said "yeah, got it." He said. "Colin, check the mini-gym and the three hundreds hall, Mark check the inside of the library and the one hundreds hall, I'll check the theater and the two hundreds hall. When you finish your hall meet near the street side of the hall." I said before we all moved out. The hallways at the school were outdoor halls; each hallway was two parallel rows of classrooms, sharing a single continuous wall.

I moved from window to window, looking in each classroom checking for Andrea. When I got to the end I moved to the other side and looked in the windows, being sure to check my back. As I got closer to the theater I was glancing in the rooms, and keeping my eyes on the ramp on the back of the theater.

Once I reached the ramp I saw two guards standing by the railing armed with rifles. I ducked behind the crates, and pulled back my crossbow, loaded a bolt, and aimed at the further guard. I slowly and steadily pulled the trigger and with a quiet Whump! The bolt left my crossbow and imbedded itself in the base of the guard's skull. I quickly got out my machete and moved closer to the other guard.

He was just about to yell when I sliced his head off. Before his body slumped to the ground I caught it and silently set it down, hiding it behind the crates. I retrieved my bolt and loaded it into my crossbow. Then I moved to the roof, I quickly got up the ladder and saw one guard on the roof with a rifle and a baseball bat.

I looked at the roof on the gym and saw a guard looking at this roof. I climbed back down the ladder and tried to solve my problem. [What am I doing?] I asked myself I moved to the back door of the theater and silently moved in. I looked up and saw the catwalk was unmanned and that many of the seats were removed and replaced with cots. I looked to see who was in the cots and saw they were mostly women and children.

I looked into the sound booth and saw no one. I exited the back door and checked the rest of the two hundreds rooms. I moved streetside and waited; Mark arrived soon after not having found Andrea. "They don't seem to be using the classrooms." Mark said "at least not the one or two hundreds." I replied.

We waited another twenty-five minutes for Colin "where is he?" Mark asked "I don't know, man I hope he didn't get caught." I said. After another twenty-five minutes we moved towards the mini-gym. When we were about thirty yards away I heard the pop! Pop! Sound of a 22 rifle.

I hurried towards the mini-gym and saw Colin putting down some creepers. I looked and saw on walking up behind him and without thinking I raised my crossbow and pulled the trigger. The arrow entered the skull right behind the nose and stopped halfway in. the creeper suddenly jerked up and fell forwards and hit the ground right behind Colin. He turned around and saw the dead creeper with an arrow in its skull. I loaded another arrow and hurried over to help him put down the last few creeps.

"Did you find her?" Mark asked "no, the mini-gym is just storage, it's not even guarded." He replied. "Alright, let's try and check the gym." I said, when we got to the gym we saw it was heavily guarded. "Guys, I'm going to leave all but my pistol and knife with you, I'll sneak in and see if Andrea's there." I whispered "alright, we'll wait at the locker room doors." Colin said.

I handed them my machete, crossbow, and backpack before moving into the quad. I tried to move as if nothing was wrong, to act like I belonged. I nonchalantly walked into the gym and closed the door behind me.

Inside were some tents, cots, sleeping pads, and dozens of people. There was also a section of the gym sealed off with tarps hung up as visual blockers. I headed there moving through small cliques of people. I was almost there; I was so close to the tarpped off area but then head a voice behind me. "Carl?" a woman asked.

I didn't stop "Carl?" she asked again "no." I replied using a South Georgia accent. "Sorry to bother you." She said. I sighed in relief, I knew who I'd just lied to, I had to or else she never would let me leave. I entered the tarpped off area and was met by a girl with black hair with a purple streak through it, dressed in black.

"Good god, finally the second shift guard, you're late." She said handing me a pistol. She left and I looked and saw Andrea bound and gagged. I quickly untied her and handed her the pistol "stay quiet, and wear this." I said giving her my jacket. "Another guard'll be here soon, we need to figure a way out." I said.

"I think this is next to the locker room." Andrea said "awesome." I said I looked under the tarp and saw a door frame. "The door's right here." I said I pulled out my folding knife and cut the tarp. Andrea and I hurried through the door and exited the locker room. "Andrea!" Mark exclaimed dropping his shotgun and holding her. For the first time in over three weeks I saw Andrea break down.

"Mark I was so scared, I-I-I never want to be like that again!" she cried "like what?" Mark asked "helpless, just completely helpless." She cried. "It's okay Andrea, you're fine, we're here, I'm here." Mark said "I'm sorry to rush you guys, but we need to leave now." Colin said. "Alright." Mark said helping Andrea up.

We ran around the three hundreds hall to avoid the people and left the school. "We need to leave the orchard tomorrow. It won't be safe anymore, not after tonight." I said "you're right. Where'll we go though?" Colin asked "there's a farm just a few miles away." I said "sounds good." Mark said.

We jogged to the orchard, as we passed a few buildings we heard the shuffling gaits of creepers. Colin and I turned around taking them out with our pistols. There were only a few of them and we cleaned them up quickly. We turned to continue running when we heard a loud CRAAACK! Before my eyes Andrea dropped to the ground and lay there motionless. "Andrea!" Mark yelled in shock "no, no no no!" I said turning to see the shooter.

When I saw the shooter I felt like I had been stabbed in the heart. I saw her standing there with a rifle, glaring at me, from a hundred yards away. My mother had shot Andrea right in the back. "Andrea please, stay with me. PLEASE!" Mark pleaded holding her "Mark, I-I'm sorry, I'm so so-sorry, I-I can't." she said, her eyes were glazing over and she seemed to be staring at nothing. Her breaths were ragged and shallow, blood dripped from her nose in a small trickle.

My mom simply turned and walked away. Colin drew his revolver and fired angrily "YOU BITCH! YOU WHORE!" he yelled. His shots all missed, but the sound made my mom jump in surprise. Andrea exhaled slowly and her face relaxed, her head tilted back lifelessly "no. no. NO!" I yelled turning and firing my pistol at my mom.

Each shot made a coughing sound since the gun was silenced "YOU STUPID BITCH! YOU HEARTLESS FUCKING BITCH!" I yelled firing my gun, just pulling the trigger, again and again. Eventually I heard a click! sound but I kept pulling the trigger. My mom walked away, calmly, like she'd done nothing wrong. "YOU WHORE! MOM YOU'RE A FUCKING WHORE!" I hollered.

She stopped mid-step turned around and looked at me. The moonlight illuminated the road and all standing on it. "I KNOW IT'S YOU! THAT'S RIGHT! IT'S ME CARL, YOU STUPID FUCKING BITCH!" I yelled in a fit of rage. I reloaded my pistol and began shooting again, cursing the whole time. I knew I couldn't hit her, but right now I didn't care, I was mad, not like back at camp. Right now I was truly mad, I wanted nothing more than revenge, revenge on my own mother, who had just murdered my friend.

"TAKE YOUR SHOT YOU FUCKING BITCH! SHOOT BACK!" I screamed reloading my pistol again and shooting, moving forward as I shot. "Carl! Come back!" Colin yelled, I didn't listen to him, I simply moved closer to my mom, shooting at her the whole time.

"WHY? WHY DID YOU KILL HER? WHY NOT SHOOT US ALL? YOU'VE HAD THE CHANCE!" I yelled now within twenty yards "WHY? WHY?" I yelled again out of ammo "ANSWER ME!" I yelled. "BECAUSE THEY WERE TAKING YOU AWAY FROM ME!" she yelled back.

"THEY WERE TAKING YOU! THEY WERE WITH YOU, THEY WERE LAUGHING, AND SPENDING TIME WITH YOU AND **I **WASN'T!" she yelled angrily. "You psychopath! You've lost it you crazy bitch!" I said in shock "oh I'm crazy? I'm crazy? I'm not crazy! I just want my son back! You are supposed to live with me! your mother! You're mine-"she yelled before I stopped her "I'M YOUR SON! NOT YOUR PROPORTY! I'M MY OWN PERSON!" I yelled, my anger awakened again.

She raised her gun to shoot but I hit the gun barrel away and it fired into the air. I punched her in the face and grabbed her gun. "YOU LITTLE BRAT! YOU AE DEAD!" she yelled angrily crawling away from me. I didn't respond, I just didn't.

I walked away from her, knowing she wasn't worth half a shit. I returned to my friends. "Andrea! wake up, wake up!" Mark cried "Mark, we have to go, alright we'll bring her too." Colin said "when we get back we're leaving first thing." He said. We walked into the dark, moving to escape the creeps I'd drawn in with my yelling and shooting. Mark was muttering to Andrea, hopelessly trying to get her to wake up. He was broken; he was falling apart before my eyes. It was horrible to watch.


	7. Chapter 7

Meant to get this chapter out way sooner but I had a case of writers block about halfway through. then I switched plot directions about two thirds in. sorry it took so long.

_**Dropping Dead**_

I knew now it wasn't the creeps who were the danger, the real danger was us. People, the surviving people, we were twisted, and crazy, or damaged. All of us were dangerous, we were monsters, my own mother tried to shoot me, she killed my friend, Andrea, in a fit of madness. We were the true beasts, the true monsters. This realization sickened me.

The

Walking

Dead

We carried Andrea's limp body back to the orchard as fast as we could. Once we were within sight of the orchard we yelled to get two ladders down. Andrea was growing paler by the second, Mark continued to try and get her to wake up. Colin covered us as we carried her towards our home.

We climbed up the ladders and quickly Nathan yelled for sleeping pads and a bench. "Is she breathing?" he asked "no." I said as set her down on a makeshift bed. "Get painkillers and antibiotics." Nathan ordered "on it." Amrita said "how's her pulse?" Steph asked I can't find one." Nathan said.

Mark stood in shock, unable to move. "Gabby, Colin, get him back." Nathan ordered. They pulled Mark to the center of the roof. "Here're the antibiotics, and all the painkillers we've got." Amrita said handing over a pitiful amount of medicine. "Carl, Amrita, we need you two to stand back, Laneys, stand by and give us some light and be ready to hold her down if she struggles." Steph said.

We all stood back and watched as Nathan and Steph began to work. Steph's mom and dad were paramedics before all this happened and had taught her more than basic emergency medicine. Nathan had wanted to be a surgeon and studied the material constantly before this.

"Can you save her?" Nick asked "probably not, she's practically dead, but we'll try everything we can." Nathan said. When they made the first incision Andrea didn't bleed, her blood was just not pumping, she looked more dead by the second. After thirty minutes of pulling out bullet fragments and trying not to cut an artery Steph finally stood up and kicked her chair away "FUCK!" she yelled in anger, she walked away swearing and kicking things.

"You couldn't save her." I said "she was probably dead for a few minutes before she was set down here. And truthfully, we never could have saved her, Steph and I, we aren't doctors. There was nothing we could do." He said. "So I guess we just get ready to get the hell out of here by dawn then." Colin said "yeah, I guess." I said.

We spent the rest of the night making nine backpacks and packing them with food, weapons, blankets, medicine, and anything else we needed. When I finished packing my backpack I wrote a note, to who eve found this place after tomorrow.

_It has been weeks since this disease had hit my hometown I've lost count exactly. In that time I have lost most of my family and most of my friends, and the friends that are left aren't the same people anymore. We've been hiding in an orchard supply this entire time, trapped by the fear of the dead. All we have are a few weapons and a duffel bag of supplies. The reason I'm writing this message is we're leaving our safehouse, and find a way off the mainland. If you find this safehouse, please leave it the way you found it, and don't take more than you need, I'm leaving these supplies for everyone, please show some humanity, at least, what's left of it._

_ Remember keep hope alive, I may not be religious, but I still believe in hope, as long as we can keep hope up we'll be able to survive, good luck._

_-Carl_

I put the note in my pocket and consolidated supplies we weren't going to be able to carry and the Laneys helped me move them inside the orchard. When the sun began to rise we got Mark up and we prepared to leave. I set the note on the box of supplies and my friends and I left the orchard supply, never to return again.

_**One Week Later**_

I walked in the lead of the group; we had covered some ground in the past three days. We tried to go to Will's farm but there were too many creeps that way. We've had minimal sleep for a week, we're all on edge and exhausted. Mark seemed to be losing the will to live, and in general all our spirits have been low. One good thing that came out of the past week, probably the only good thing, was that Amrita and I had made up after our fight on the roof.

It was getting dark now and we needed to find a place to sleep soon. "Carl, where are we?" Nathan asked "to be honest, I have no clue. We need a map and a compass." I answered. "great." He sighed "Carl, we need to find a safe place to crash soon or some of us are gonna drop." Amrita said.

We were on the crest of a line of hills, we were entirely exposed and open to attack by creep and hostile humans alike. I looked around to see if I could find some place to sleep safely around here. There wasn't a place I could see that was safe, not within walking distance.

"Guys we're going to move down this hillside and make camp, we'll need two people on guard." I said everyone nodded and we moved to a relatively level part of the hillside and everyone set up their sleeping pads except Amrita and I, who were taking first watch.

We stood guard looking around to make sure nothing got the drop on us, but we were tired. I don't think I could fight a creeper, or anything, I was drained, I was running on empty. "You haven't talked with the group about it yet, about your mom killing Andrea. Please just talk to me, just speak." She said "I don't know what to say, my mom's lost it and become a murdering lunatic. And what do I say to Mark, what happened to Andrea was my fault." I said.

"I can't tell you word for word what to say, but you need to be honest. That's all I can say. But talk to me about it, about how you feel about it, get your feelings out." She said "alright." I said. "My mom's gone nuts, she killed one of my best friends, I know if we ever see her again she'll probably kill someone else. I just don't know if I could kill her if it was necessary." I said

Amrita looked at me without saying a word, like she knew I just needed to talk and have someone else listen. "I-I just feel responsible for all of this. If I hadn't been so impulsive a week ago we may be better off than we were on the roof. Now we're almost at rock bottom." I said "Carl, what you did was only one of hundreds of factors that caused all this. This isn't on your shoulders alone." She said.

We sat in silence "Amrita, what do you think we should do?" I asked "what do you mean?" she asked back "where should we go?" I asked. "I think we need to get to a less populated area, maybe an isolated cabin or some place. But we need to leave this place." She said "but what if things are worse, what if this place is the best place on earth?" I asked "Carl, the best place on earth is where you are, and where our friends are." She said taking my hand.

_**The Next Day**_

We all woke up and packed our supplies quickly before we started walking. I walked at the front of the group, ever since Andrea's death Mark just couldn't make decisions and I was the only one who stepped up and led us out of the orchard. Now I understood why Mark was always so stressed, I have to decide every major group action, which direction to walk, when to stop, when to start, where to rest, I couldn't do this without Amrita and Nathan to help me. The two of them keep me sane; they make sure I'm not driving myself crazy, they keep me in touch with reality.

The group is just getting by. We never have enough food, we have barley any water, and we had to leave behind way more ammo than I wanted to at the orchard. The Laneys are hanging in there, they never complain, and they do their best to make the group comfortable. Colin and Gabby are the only thing keeping the other going, if one of them died or left the other would just give up, I can see it in their eyes. Mark just gets by; he eats and drinks enough to stay alive, I think more out of instinct than an actual will to live.

Nathan is the last truly sane person in the group, he always makes a point to remind me of the important things the group needs and makes sure I'm still mostly _here_ mentally. Amrita is keeping me going, she is always checking in on how I feel, she gets me to talk about myself, to get my concerns out instead of letting them bounce around in my head. She manages to make sure I want to live; she does it only through always showing her will to live for the sake of living, and nothing else.

I have no clue why Steph is still with us, she is the group loner. I get the sense that before this she never had to deal with tragedy or failure, and failing to save Andrea has been eating away at her. But why she still stays with the group is a complete mystery to me, she dislikes all of us. Our group is beaten and broken, but we are just limping along, for reasons we all doubt. We can't go on like this forever, if this is how the world will be for the rest of our lives than I hope all our lives are short.

"Carl, you're getting lost in your head again." Amrita said grabbing my hand "sorry, I can't help it, walking in quiet isn't helping much." I said looking into the distance. "We should look for some food; we ate the last of the energy bars last night for dinner." Nathan said "alright." I said, I looked and saw a town that could only be a mile or two away.

"We'll head there." I said pointing at the town. We moved as fast as we could towards the town. Our fastest wasn't too fast though, we were all malnourished and dehydrated. After two hours of walking we finally got into town. Nathan, Amrita, and I went to scout it out, the others stayed behind to wait for the all clear.

All of the houses here were nice, they weren't too nice, but they seemed alright. "This place looks barely picked over." Amrita noted "yeah, like everyone just up and left, hell it looks like they walked, there's still cars here." I said "this seems too good." Nathan said. "Yeah. Your right, let's be careful." Amrita said raising her rifle a little.

"I hope someone here had a crossbow, I'm almost out of bolts." I said "how many do you have left?" Amrita asked "three." I answered "what happened to the other three?" she asked "remember two nights ago, the creeper attack, I wasn't able to get those three back." I said. "That sucks." Nathan commented "yeah, and I haven't found time to use the dowels from the orchard to make new ones." I said. "Guys, don't complain, it'll make our moral worse." Amrita said scolding us "sorry." I said "don't worry about it, I just don't want moral to go any lower than it is." She said.

We moved through window-checking the houses. Window-checking was just looking in the windows to see if the house was mostly clear. So far the houses were clear of creeps and still had furniture and valuables inside. "This is really weird, what happened here?" Amrita asked "I don't know, but what's making me uneasy is that this place isn't picked clean, everything's still here." Nathan said.

We rounded the corner of one street and I put the pieces together. Ahead of us was a fortification made of sandbags and military barricade equipment. "The army evaced everyone, they saved them." I said "they saved a whole town? That would have taken way more work than it was worth, it'd be too many people and what's that smell?" Nathan said. "No, no it wouldn't be." Amrita said looking to our left.

There was a massive pile of burnt corpses, the pile was easily twenty feet high and forty across in the center of what must have been town square. Amrita turned away, walked over to me and buried her head in my shoulder. I held her and closed my eyes so I didn't have to look at the corpse pile. "Ah man." Nathan said taking off his hat and putting it to his heat.

"Let's move on." Amrita said "yeah, check the rest of the neighborhood and get the others." I said. We quickly checked the neighborhood and hurried back to the others. We brought them to the town square to explain to them where we were staying. Amrita didn't want to go back to town square so we didn't force her to.

"Well, we're going to stay at this town as long as we can, but before we settle in I wanted to make sure we all know how lucky we are."I said as I led the group to town square. "When the world went to hell we didn't have a lot of contact with the outside world, some of us called our families before phones went down, and some texted them while those networks were still up. The people of this town weren't so lucky." I said.

We arrived in town square and I stopped "these people were overrun by their own families, their loved ones. From what we can tell the army came here to provide aid, which may explain why we received none since they were busy here. When the army got here most of the town's populace was infected and the army wiped those individuals out. They probably air lifted the others to a military base. But they forced these people to leave everything behind, from what we've seen the town was cleared quickly, these people left behind everything, even family pictures. While we're here I'd like to let this place be at peace, we should respect those who lived here and died here. What I'm trying to say is leave up the pictures on the walls, don't disturb these bodies till we can give them a proper burial, and let these homes, at least the ones we'll stay in remain well kept." I said

I walked out of town square and went to where Amrita had waited so she didn't have to go back to the horrible square. "Let's settle in."I said putting my arm around her "sure, I just don't want to be here long." She said "I understand that, but if luck allows it I think we can stay here for a good long while." I said "this place is just eerie, I feel like I'm violating it just by being here. But if it turns out to be safe then I guess we'll stay. But can you do something about those bodies?" she asked.

"Sure, I was planning on it anyway; they aren't healthy to have around, mentally or physically." I said. We finally picked a house; it was a two-story house with a small backyard and a sturdy fence. Inside were two bedrooms, a living room, dining room, kitchen, two bathrooms, three closets, and a second-story deck. The others all followed us to the house, and as I opened the door I saw they were all going to come in "uh, guys, you can all have a house, seriously, but Amrita and I kinda were gonna take this one." I said.

They all looked at me with a puzzled expression and it took me a second to put the pieces together. We'd all been in the same sleeping arrangements for weeks now and they didn't want to be alone or in any smaller groups. "Guys, you can take the houses next door, there's plenty on this block." Amrita said "sorry, we're just not used to, to being separated." Gabby said "guys, we'll be next door to each other, it'll be fine." Amrita said giving a smile.

They all nodded and dispersed into the neighboring houses. Gabby and Colin took one, the Laneys took another, Nathan took the smallest house and was our direct neighbor, and Steph and Mark took the end house on the block. Amrita and I quickly checked our house and unpacked in the master bedroom; she and I quickly got to work making the house defensible. I grabbed some extra 2x4's and made a bar for the door and boarded as many windows on the first floor as I could while Amrita set up magazines for our guns in strategic locations around the house. She also found the attic and made up a bed there just in case.

When she finished that she came downstairs and helped me barricade the house. When we finished we took our canned foods and began cooking a meal. We both opened cans and made a gruel and set a small table in the living room. We sat in two chairs we'd found and ate our dinner; for the first time in days we didn't quickly scarf down our food, we savored it; we ate, not fed like wild animals.

We were about to go get some sleep when we heard a scream from next door. "That was Gabby!" Amrita said grabbing her rifle and hurrying out the door. I grabbed my machete and followed, we burst into her and Colin's house followed by the others and found Colin holding back a large creep with his bat. Gabby was nowhere to be seen "Find Gabby!" I ordered "on it!" the Laneys said rushing into the house. I went to help Colin, but before I took a step I heard a gunshot and turned to look behind me.

I saw Amrita with her rifle shouldered and the barrel smoking. I saw the creep had fallen down and was dead. "How'd you guys not find that?" Amrita asked "we didn't explore the house really, Gabby went to use the bathroom and she found that thing." Colin said "where is she?"I asked "she's fine, last I saw her she was getting away from the fucking thing." Colin said.

"Found her, she's clean!" Josh yelled "alright, everyone remember to check your house thoroughly, we don't want a repeat of this. Tomorrow we'll sweep the neighborhood, now let's all get some good sleep." I said. We all returned to our houses and settled in. Amrita and I went upstairs to the master bedroom and closed the doors. We got under the covers and put our arms around each other and went to sleep.

When we woke up the sun was already up and birds were chirping "are those actually birds?" Amrita asked "I think so." I replied. This was the one of the first time we'd heard birds singing in weeks, wildlife went quiet whenever the creeps were even remotely nearby, we didn't know what it was but the creeps scared the shut out of animals.

We each got out of bed and got dressed, then we unlocked the house and went outside. A few of the others were already out and about; Steph was bringing supplies to her and Mark's house while the Laneys were working on a baring mechanism for everyone else's doors. "Well, this may be the first time we weren't the first up." Amrita commented "maybe."I said smiling a little.

"I'm going to go help with the supply gathering." I said "alright, and remember to do something about the bodies." Amrita said before walking over to Gabby and Colin's house to check on them. "Will do." I said lazily walking over to Nathan's house and knocking on the door "hey bro, we gotta take care of the body pile, are you up?" I yelled.

I waited a minute for an answer "huh, yeah I'm up! Yeah, I'm a hundred percent awake, not just waking up or anything!" he yelled groggily. "I'll be back in a few minutes, I'll get Mark or Colin to help." I said walking over to Gabby and Colin's. As I walked over I saw Amrita walk out with an expression of "why'd I have to see that?" on her face.

"What's wrong?" I asked "well, um, I just walked in on them doing, well, you know…" she trailed off awkwardly "oh, sorry about that, thanks for saving me from that." I said turning around and walking to Steph and Marks house. I knocked on the door and waited a few seconds; Mark answered the door quickly "what?" he asked "Nathan and I need some help dealing with the bodies, the huge pile in town square and the one that we killed in the lovebirds house last night." I said. "I'll be right there." He said with no conviction before closing the door.

"The one guy who could use some moral boosting." I muttered walking back to Nathan's house. "Hey dude, are you good to go?" I asked "yeah, I'll be out in thirty seconds" he replied. Soon after he opened the door of his house and walked out carrying his weapons. "Mark's the only one available, Colin's, well, occupied." I said "good for him." Nathan said "yeah, funny thing was, when Amrita and I got up she went to check on em' and walked in at the wrong time." I said.

Nathan laughed "yeah, dude her expression was hilarious, it was like this." I mimicked Amrita's expression while walking "that's fucking priceless." Nathan laughed "what is?" Amrita asked from a distance away "nothing!" I quickly replied holding back laughter. "alright." She said. Nathan and I both chuckled, this morning was the most upbeat the group had been this entire time.

I knocked on Mark's door when we got there and he answered the door faster than last time. "Alright, let's get this over with." He said slinging his rifle over his shoulder. The rifle was Andrea's M4 assault rifle, from our first scouting mission. It had some significance for both Mark and I, it also made me feel guilty every time I saw the fucking thing.

We made our way to the tow square corpse pile and looked at it for a minute. "There must be a hundred of em'." Nathan said "yeah." Mark said "you guys up for digging?" I asked "no." "hell no." they replied. "then what are we going to do, cause' burning apparently didn't get rid of the bodies." I said "maybe we could just carry them away." Nathan joked "sure, we'll pick them up one at a time and carry them- NO!" Mark said.

"Dude, he was joking." I said stepping back just a little. "What're we gonna do?" Nathan asked "maybe we should come back to this, let's sweep the rest of the neighborhood clean of creeps." I said walking away from the burnt corpses. "Hey guys, how's the infection spread?" Nathan asked "hmm, it's been weeks and that's something we haven't figured out. That's gonna suck when we do." I said.

"No dude seriously, how does it get transmitted?" he asked "I dunno, a lot of creepers seem to have open wounds, maybe fluid contact." I said "get bitten; turn to a creeper, great." Mark commented "not just that, if it's fluid contact, so don't kiss anyone infected, get scratched, drink contaminated water, get any of that junk in your eye or nose or mouth, or try and get lucky with one." Nathan said. "wasn't planning on that last one ever dude. That could have gone unmentioned." I said.

"Yeah, and who would even think about doing that?" Mark asked "was that humor?"I asked "I believe it may have been an attempt." Nathan said. Mark shrugged us off and walked ahead of us. We checked thirty houses, all of them were clear; the whole neighborhood was empty, except for us.

We walked back to our block and I went to Amrita and my house. She was still gathering supplies so I decided to relax for a little bit and sat on the deck. I kept my crossbow with me, a bolt loaded just in case. It was around noon when I heard the door behind me open and I turned around with my crossbow ready. "Whoa, calm down. Steph and I just wanted to show you what we found." Amrita said "sorry, instinct." I said following her outside.

We walked onto the street and steph was standing next to a tuck, it was a 2001 dodge and it was in great condition. "Holy shit!" I exclaimed "and the best part is there's a whole lot of gas in this town, we siphoned a bunch from some other cars. We could take a car each and have enough gas to dive a hundred miles and we found some generators we can use for power." Amrita said. "This is amazing! You're amazing!" I said picking her up and kissing her "I helped too." Steph said.

"Don't expect a kiss from him." Amrita said in mock jealousy. We all decided to celebrate with a big lunch, we ate the food we'd found in the houses and a supermarket a few blocks away. The meal was from boxes of unopened cereal, canned goods and some dinks we'd found. We were all happy, even Mark seemed to be cheering up. The past two days had seen our group's moral pull a one-eighty from hopeless to hopeful. Things were looking up.


	8. Chapter 8

Things were looking up, we had supplies, a place we could stay for awhile, luxuries, we must be the most well off people in the country right now. And even if all this didn't work out, even if we have to leave here we've got the supplies to do so, we're set.

The

Walking

Dead

When we finished lunch Amrita and I decided to go for a short walk before getting back to our work. We walked away from town square and found a small park. The grass and trees were withered and drying out, but had an odd look of beauty to them. we didn't really feel the need to talk much, it was just a nice day to listen to numerous sounds we missed, birds, people in the distance, and cars.

{wait, cars?} I thought. Amrita and I looked at each other and ran back to the group. "Are you guys running a car?" Amrita yelled "no. why?" Gabby asked "oh shit" I exclaimed running to the deck of my house and looking around the town. Amrita grabbed binoculars and looked around from the roof. "there! Two streets over, someone's driving a car!" she yelled pointing to a street that intersected ours.

We ran downstairs grabbing our weapons and ran to the street. We moved to ambush the car, hiding in bushes and behind fences. When we finally saw it I was confused, the driver seemed dunk. The car was driving at an odd angle to the road and suddenly correcting as it slowly made its way down the street. The car had holes in the windshield, this made me nervous.

Amrita and I stepped out and waved them down. The car stopped about ten feet away, but I couldn't see the driver, they were slumped over the steering wheel. When they stopped the door swung open and the driver fell out of the car on their side. "Oh shit!" Amrita exclaimed rushing up to help them, followed her to the car along with Nathan and Steph.

Now I got a good look at the driver, she was a young woman, a little older than me, with curly tan hair, she was pale and the right side of her shirt had two relatively large bloodstains. "Amrita, Carl, get back and let us work!" Steph ordered, we each stepped back and let them work. Steph quickly tore the girl's shirt where the two bloodstains were and examined the girls shoulder. "She's been shot twice, once in the shoulder and once in the side of her chest." Steph said to Nathan "did her heart or lungs get hit?" he asked "no." she replied.

"How bad is the shoulder wound?" Nathan asked putting some hand sanitizer on "not incredibly bad, it missed major blood vessels and the bulk of her collarbone." Steph replied. "Alright let's see if there's an exit wound." Nathan said, he and Steph flipped the girl onto her side and looked "alright good, two exit wounds, both bullets passed right through." Steph said.

"How much blood do you think she's lost?" Steph asked "enough to be out cold now." Nathan replied "but she's not losing much now, this must've happened awhile ago." Steph said then she paused "Carl, check the car for any evidence of her trying to stop the bleeding, Amrita, search it for medical supplies and food." She ordered. We nodded and began searching, I found two bloody rags and threw them to Steph, who sighed in relief "smart girl." She said.

"No medicine, but some powdered milk and orange juice." Amrita said "good, Nathan let's try to wake her up." Steph said "Laneys! Go search the FEMA tent in the army camp! The one at town square! Try and find bloodbags and IVs!" Steph yelled. They ran as fast as they could and were back with three coolers of bloodbags. "Steph quickly took the coolers and looked through them "come on O-negative, please have O-negative!" she said to herself.

"Why O-negative?" I asked "not now!" she said "it's universal donation, anyone can receive it." Nathan said taking a second to explain before resuming his attempts to wake the girl up. "CRAP! No O-negative, how can this town have everything but fucking O-negative blood?" she asked. "Now we need to know her blood type." Nathan said "I got an idea." Steph said walking over "what?" Nathan asked.

Steph knelt down lifted the girls head up gently and the slapped her across the face "Holy shit!" Nathan exclaimed "uh, uh, what?" the girl mumbled. We all stared in disbelief that slapping he had worked. "Hi, I need you to focus alright, what blood type are you?" Steph asked sternly "AB, AB negative." She mumbled. "FUCK YES!" Steph cried "she can receive any fucking blood we have!" she said getting a bloodbag ready.

"alright, everyone, you can go back to your day, we got this, Mark stay here and guard us while we work alright." Steph ordered as she went into her pack and got out sutchering equipment and handed it to Nathan who began sewing up the bullet wounds. We all left and tried to go back to our day. Amrita and I went back home and sat on our deck. "That was certainly interesting." I said "yeah, it's weird though, she'd been shot. That means there're hostile people near our town." Amrita said.

"We'll deal with that later, let's just relax." I said "fine, but please, remember to deal with it, it could be a disaster if we don't plan for it." Amrita said. "So we'll make a plan tomorrow morning." I said "so what're we gonna do about our new arrival?" she asked "if she lives we'll ask her if she wants to join, if she doesn't she can leave or take a house in another neighborhood." I said "hmm, are you doing that out of courtesy or because she's pretty?" amrita asked "because it's the right thing to do. You've got no competition, trust me." I said.

Two hours later Nathan stopped by to get us. "We gave her a blood transfusion and she seems to be alright, she'll probably be walking in a day or two." He said "anything else?" Amrita asked "no, she's conscious, and appears lucid, but that's it." He replied. "I think we should talk to her." Amrita said "are you sure, she needs rest." Nathan said "she was shot. We need to know where, and if she knows, by who." I said. "Fine, make it quick though, she's in my house in the first floor bedroom. Be nice alright." Nathan said.

Amrita and I walked over to Nathan's house and went to talk to the "patient" and find out what happened to her. When we walked into the room she was reading a book quietly "Hunger Games, the third book sucked." Amrita said "thanks for the spoiler." The girl said "so what happened to you?" I asked as Amrita and I pulled up some chairs. "I was driving and I saw a few people on the side of the road, when I pulled over this one lady started going crazy, asking me "where is he?" like I'd kidnapped her son or some shit. Then another guy pulled his gun, I started to back up my car and he shot at me, I didn't realize I'd been hit for a few minutes. I used some rags to block the bleeding and tried to stay awake, I probably drove for a day before I got here, the last thing I remember is her waving and then it's just blurs." She said.

"Tell me about these people, what'd they look like, specifically the woman." I said "well, she had brown hair like yours, blue eyes, again like you, and had this big frickin' rifle, a bolt action." She said "is that her?" Amrita asked "who?" the girl asked suddenly nervous. "Yeah, well the woman, the crazy one, is my mom. Can you tell me what the man who shot looked like?" I asked "well, he was in an orange jumpsuit, like the stuff people in prisons wear, had a shiny gold tooth, wasn't well shaven, he had just a patchy beard, never mind. He had a sort of crazy look in his eyes, these wide orangish eyes just looked like that face you'd see some hobos have before all this happened, you know the mentally ill ones with tin foil on their heads." She said.

"Is that your step-dad?" Amrita asked "no, that doesn't seem like him, my step-dad cut his own hair, he always was clean shaved. This guy's new." I said "have you dealt with these lunatics before? Who are they?" the girl asked. "They're a group we've had trouble with in the past. Actually the reason we're here, they displaced us a little over a week ago." I lied "well, that sucks. How's my car, just wondering." She asked "aside from bloodstains and the two bullet holes fine, your supplies will be brought to your room later today when we find time." Amrita said.

"Thanks. My names Noelle by the way." She said "I'm Amrita, and no problem." She replied "and my name's Carl." I said. "Well, I just want to say thank you for helping me out." Noelle said "you really should thank Nathan and Steph, they saved your life, we had no part in it." I said. "Still, thank you, thank you both." She said.

Amrita and I left and walked to Noelle's car "she seems nice." Amrita said "oh, that phrase is a trap." I joked "you're right, it is." She said playfully as we opened the trunk of the car and began unloading Noelle's supplies and carrying them to her room. "Do you know how to drive?" Amrita asked me "no, why?" I answered "neither can I, maybe we should learn from Noelle." Amrita said "let's not bother her more today." I said as we approached Nathan's house and carried the supplies to Noelle's room.

When we walked in she was reading again "thanks you two." She smiled "I couldn't help but notice you have no weapons, why?" Amrita asked "I never found any before I started driving, and then I didn't need to worry really, you know until a day or so ago." She answered "here, take my pistol, just in case something happens." Amrita said handing her pistol and two spare mags. "uh, thanks I guess." Noelle said uneasily taking the gun and setting on the end table by the head of her bed. Then Amrita and I left and went back home.

"So, did you give her the gun to do the right thing or was it because she's pretty?" I asked "shut up!" Amrita laughed gently hitting me in the arm. "Seriously, why?" I asked "I just don't like the idea of her being helpless in case your mom's group shows up." She admitted. "Yeah, alight." I said as we walked into our house and sat down on the couch and just sat.

When it got dark we closed the curtains and bared the doors before heading upstairs and getting in bed. "goodnight." I said "night." She replied we kissed once and then went to sleep. I drifted to a dream; the world was a monotone gray as far as I could see. There was nothing around; it was an empty landscape with no features.

I couldn't move and I felt as though I were floating. Then an image began to form, slowly, painfully slowly, it seemed human, like it was a person. Just as details were appearing I was snapped out of it. I felt something go over my head and heard Amrita screaming "NO LET ME GO!" she was yelled. Then there was a thud and she was quiet "I swear if you hurt her I'll kill you myself!" I yelled struggling. "Stop struggling or we will hurt her." A woman said "mom." I growled "I'm taking you back, alone with some of your friends." She said.

I didn't struggle, I couldn't risk Amrita getting hurt, and if she did get hurt because of me I'd never forgive myself. We were carried for a few minutes before we were put in a car. After about five minutes of diving we were taken out of the car and set on the ground. They removed the hood from my head and I saw Amrita, Mark, and Nathan were with me.

"Get on your knees." A man ordered, we all reluctantly did as we were told. They were all standing behind us. "kill her! Kill her!" my mom hollered "shut up Syl, I'm the leader of this group, I choose who gets it." A man said "Amrita, I'm so, so sorry, if you die here it's all my-" I began "SHUT UP!" the man yelled. "Just kill her and be done with it!" one man yelled "Leevie shut up!" the apparent leader said "I'm going to talk to each of you, and I'll ask you each a question, then I'll decide who to kill." The man said walking in front of us. He kneeled to be at eye level with me "do you love your mom boy?" he asked "depends, now or before?" I asked back.

"alright." he said moving on "girl, if you had to pick, you, or your boyfriend here to get out of this alive, who do you choose?" he asked "him." She said quickly. "Amrita?" I said as if to ask "why" she didn't answer "what is your relationship to this boy?" he asked Nathan pointing at me "he's my best friend, he's like a brother." Nathan answered shakily. Then he looked at Mark "I understand your sister was killed awhile back, what do you have to live for now?" the man asked him.

"What do I have? I have absolutely nothing to live for now, she was all I had left in the world, you people have left me with nothing." Mark said as his voice screamed of hatred and bloodlust. "I have all I need to know." The man said walking behind us. They put a bag over each of our heads again and then I felt a gun barrel touch the back of my head.

"goodbye." The man said before I heard a loud bang and horrid sqush! Sound, but I was still here. I then heard lots of footsteps and a car engine "Amrita, are you alright?" I asked "y-yeah, I'm fine." She said. I quickly shook my hood off and saw her still there, shaking. I quickly pulled her hood off and hugged her.

"Who'd they get?" she asked I looked to the side and saw Mark, still alive, pulling his hood off and standing up. Then I looked down and saw Nathan, his body on its stomach and the back of his head open. I couldn't talk, I tried, I really tried but all I got was a small gasping sound. "Carl, I'm so sorry." Amrita said hugging me and turning me away from the horrid sight of my best friend's corpse.

"Let's get home." Mark said looking around and finding our bearings. "Come on, let's go alright." Amrita said helping me to my feet and giving me her arm to guide me. "th-th-they, they killed him." I said. "We'll hold a funeral when we get home, but we need to get home, alright hon." She said trying to be as strong as possible.

We walked for an hour, simply ambling, unarmed and demoralized. "We're lost aren't we?" Amrita asked "yeah, I think we are." Mark said. we were lost, this was their final little stab at us, they didn't want us to survive, they wanted us all to die.

"Do you hear that?" Amrita asked "hear what?" mark replied "a car, a lone car." She said looking around. I heard the sound too, it was just one car engine getting slowly louder and louder. Amrita and Mark led me off the road and we hid behind a rock that easily left us exposed. Within twenty minutes a car slowly dove by, its headlights were off, it was driving at probably only ten miles per-hour and wasn't quite in line with the road.

"That's not one of their cars." Amrita said standing up and waving the car down. As soon as she waved the car stopped and the door opened "thank god I found you!" Noelle said weakly standing up, leaned against the door. Amrita and Mark led me to the car and we got in "what happened?" Mark asked "well, these people barged into the house, from what I could hear every house, and grabbed you guys, I hid under my bed so they wouldn't find me, where's Nathan?" Noelle said.

"They, they killed him." Mark said with a deadpanned expression "oh no." Noelle said looking in the rear view mirror at me. Within a few minutes we reached home and all got out of the car. The others were all standing outside their houses, seemingly waiting for us to get back. When we got out I could hear them talk "they're okay!" "that's a relief." "wait, there's someone missing." "where's Nathan?" they said.

Amrita and Noelle just walked me to my house ignoring the questions and they led me to the couch and let me sit down. "Noelle, can you stay over tonight?" Amrita asked "sure, sure, just gimmie a place to sit. My bullet wounds are killing me. All this walking and driving you know." She replied sitting on the couch. I just sat, staring at the floor, not sleeping, not doing anything really. "Noelle, thank you." Amrita said "call us even." She said putting her arm around Amrita and in a motherly act hugged her.

She and Amrita moved over to the couch and sat next to me; then she put her other arm around me. "It'll be okay. I promise, it'll all work out for the best." Noelle said I didn't believe her at all; my best friend was murdered tonight. He was murdered in cold blood by a group of psychos, maniacs, monsters.

_**The Next Morning**_

I woke up still on the couch, Amrita was next to me. Noelle walked into the room leaning against the wall to stay on her feet. "Oh, you're up. The others wanted to see you. They're all concerned about you." She said "listen, Carl," she began before looking at Amrita "she loves you Carl, you need to keep your head above water, for her. Without you she's gonna fall apart." She said sitting down in a chair across from me.

"Have you two said "I love you." To each other?" she asked "no." I whispered "why?" she questioned "I guess I figured she knew." I said "she does know. But you know what, us women like to hear it actually, okay. Tell her." Noelle ordered. Then I heard the front door open, I looked up and saw Colin and Gabby walk in.

"We were worried about you." Gabby said "yeah, we know you are hurting right now and we just want you to know that we all care about you." Colin said "thanks guys. Just to let you know, I'm doing better, I just need time." I said. The next people to come in were the Laneys who basically said the same thing.

Steph was next to come in a talk, I knew she would tell me this was my fault. "Listen, Carl, Amrita, the two of you have seen things I can't imagine, I wish, I really do wish that they had taken me instead of you, then Nathan may have lived. I'm just sorry this all happened and I want to say I'm sorry, not just about this, I'm sorry about everything, how I acted before, how I treated you two. I-I'm sorry." She said with a look of horrible guilt on her face.

Immediately after saying this she left the house. Mark was the only one who didn't visit, but we understood, he was there, he saw what happened and he needed to recover himself. "Well, I'm going to go home." Noelle said slowly walking out of the house leaving Amrita and I alone. We didn't have anything to say really.

"Amrita, I need to tell you something, something important." I said "what is it?"she asked "I-I need to say this, last night made me realize I may not get a chance to say this if I don't say it now, I almost didn't get a chance to say it. Amrita, I love you." I said clumsily "Carl, I-I don't know what to say, I mean I-" she stuttered before I kissed her.


	9. Chapter 9

"Carl, I-I don't know what to say, I mean I-" she stuttered before I kissed her. She put her arms around my neck gently and I put my arms around her waist. Suddenly I head the door open and one step "oh crap, um, I'm really sorry, I-I um left my gun here, and um, yeah this is awkward." Noelle said. Amrita and I didn't bother responding, we just kissed.

The

Walking

Dead

After what seemed like forever we stopped kissing and sat together. We both couldn't think of anything to say, we just decided to sit together. I held her in my arms and she leaned back and we just sat on the couch.

When we finally decided to go outside we were met by the others. They all had looks of guilt on their faces. "what?" I asked "Carl, those people are going to target you, and anyone around you. We think it's best if you leave." Steph said "what?" Amrita questioned "we've voted on this, Carl, you need to leave. They'll go after you." Steph said "no way you all think that!" I said "I don't." Noelle said "then it's not unanimous." I said "they didn't let me vote. I'm technically not a member of the group." She replied.

"But all of you can't think this?" amrita asked the members of the group who voted "all our problems with these people came from action you took Carl." Mark said "who actually agrees with that?" I asked. Mark, Steph, and the Laneys raised their hands. "But if it weren't for Carl we'd never have found this place." Amrita said "we wouldn't have needed to find this place. We would have been fine." Mark said.

"Fine, I'll leave, but I want a car, and some gas, food, and weapons." I said giving in. "we'll let you take whatever weapons you have, but we're not giving you any of ours." Steph said "I can't believe you people" Amrita said. "Carl, you don't have to leave." She pleaded "if he doesn't leave willingly we're prepared to force you out." Mark said. I looked and saw the Laneys each had pistols ready.

"Amrita, it's alright I'll leave." I said "you can go with him if you want." Steph said "and if you want Noelle can drive you." She added. I ignored her and walked to the house and gathered up my supplies up into a pack and then walked past everyone to where the gas was kept.

I reached for the big can and the Laneys each drew their pistols "you take one of the smaller ones." Nick ordered "you're not gonna use the stuff, it'll just sit here" I yelled. "Let him take it." Steph said I took it and went to pick a car. Amrita walked over with a pack of her own ready and her weapons "I'm coming with you." She stated "are you sure, it'd put you in danger." I said "Carl, I don't care, I'm coming with you." She said "and so am I." Noelle said walking over.

"really, why?" Amrita asked "because you two are my only real friends here, and I don't think that you leaving will solve the problem." she replied "and we may need to leave soon cause I stole some weapons and ammo while they were voting and they'll notice soon." She added. Amrita and looked at each other then at Noelle and then at each other again. "You have all your stuff?" she asked me "yeah, you?" I asked "mhm." She answered "good, I got all my stuff into a new car, it's this way." Noelle said.

Noelle led us to a green chevy equinox which was loaded with some supplies and Noelle's personal possessions. "Let's hurry." I said moving towards the passenger side door "shotgun!" Amrita called "damnit." I cursed getting in the back seat. "So before they realize we stole a bunch of supplies-" Noelle began "you stole." I corrected "whatever, north or south?" she asked "I'd say north." Amrita said "alright." Noelle said closing her door and starting the car.

"So when they realize we stole food and weapons how pissed do you think they'll be?" Amrita asked "they'll be more than a bit angry." I said "well we won't be here to see it." Noelle said as we drove away. "They didn't give you two time to grieve." Noelle said "I've got plenty of time since the world ended and my schedule cleared up." I said. Amrita didn't say anything for awhile.

"What's our actual plan?" she finally asked "we're gonna keep runnin', as far and as fast as we can. You know the standard Doctor plan." Noelle said "Doctor? Doctor who?" I asked "exactly." She replied. "I figured we'll run till' it's not worth it for those psychos to chase us, however far that may be." I said "what if we hit Alaska and they're still chasing us?" Amrita asked "well then we'll just keep heading north until we end up heading south, we'll just keep running." I said "we can't run forever." Noelle said "yes, we can and we will." I said.

"So, we're just going north and then what?" Amrita asked "I just said, we keep running till' we don't have to or we can't." I said "I like the sound of that." Noelle said. We drove down the road and chatted a little, we just wanted to pass the time. As it got late we pulled over and hid the car. Then we made ourselves comfortable and tried to sleep. I lay down across the middle seats, Amrita took the back seats and Noelle slept in the driver's seat. The next morning when I woke up Noelle was already driving.

_**One Month Later**_

We approached another town, this was the third town we'd been to and we really needed some food and gas. "Please have food." Amrita said crossing her fingers "food? What about gas? We're close to E." Noelle said. when we pulled in we all got our weapons ready and looked around, about fifty feet away was what looked like a general store, I couldn't tell though because the sign was torn down.

We all moved in and swept the building, we'd gotten pretty good at this after going through dozens of buildings. "I found food babe, but no gas Noelle." I hollered as I stuffed some cans in my pocket "do either of you drink?" Noelle asked from somewhere in the store "no, and I don't think it's smart if any of us do, given the circumstances." Amrita replied.

We all met outside at the car and dropped off what we found before moving on to the next building. It was a barber shop and we thought about leaving until we looked in the mirror. All three of us had unkempt hair, Amrita's and Noelle's hair was so long it reached halfway down their backs and my hair was down to my shoulders. "I think we could all use a haircut." Noelle said "yeah, that sounds like a good idea." Amrita replied.

We spent the next half hour cutting hair, neither Noelle or Amrita let me cut their hair, they didn't trust me with a blade unless I was fighting off creepers. After we were done we all looked in the mirror, my hair was cut very short, it was only an two inches in length, Amrita's hair was now shoulder length and tied in a ponytail, and Noelle's hair was at the same length and put into a bun. We sat for a minute, looking at the piles of hair we left on the floor.

Outside I heard something, it sounded like footsteps, two pairs of feet walking just out of sync with each other. "Guys, outside." I said prompting the others to hide behind a table; we all looked out the front window for a minute. "Look, it's that car we saw leave the town." one voice said "maybe it's them." a second voice said then two people passed the window, one was a girl dressed in black, with black hair a purple streak in her hair and the other was a blonde boy a bit younger than me wearing a blue jacket. Both of them were armed, they had pistols in hand.

Amrita and I moved up slowly and silently, Noelle followed us only a few feet behind. We stuck close to the walls and low to the ground. I signaled the other two to stop and I moved up with my pistol drawn, I got within ten feet from the two before I sprang into action.

I jumped the guy, using my left am to put him in a choke hold and I aimed my pistol at his head with my right hand "don't move!" I yelled as the girl turned around to face me. Noelle and Amrita now moved up and took their weapons "wait a second. I know you!" the girl said looking at me "no, you don't." I said "you were the one who took guard duty weeks ago when that girl got freed." She said "you know what, now I think I remember it." I said.

"you're part of the group hunting us." I said pushing the boy over to her and aiming my gun at them "whoa whoa whoa, calm down, we left that group of psychos the night they attacked that neighborhood where you used to live, we didn't want to do stuff like that, we just wanted to get justice for the deaths of some of our people." The boy said standing up. "And we're supposed to believe that load of shit?" Noelle asked "it's not a load of shit! We're being hunted by those crazy people too, when we said we didn't want to be a part of that we had to run or get killed, our car an out of gas a few miles away and we've been walking for a few hours. We needed help and you were the only people we could think of." The girl said.

Amrita was watching the two of them intently, not talking, only listening and observing their body language. "We need help, notice we've got no packs and only pistols, we're struggling right now, we need help!" the girl pleaded "we need your help, those crazy people are catching up to us, they're after us now, since the attack on that houses they've been trying to catch us, we need to get away, they're only a day or so behind us." The boy said.

"We need to go now, let's siphon some gas and get out of here." I said "thank god." The girl said "oh, you two are staying, you deserve this, its karma." I said "Carl, they're not B-S-ing us, they're telling the truth." Amrita said "what?" I asked "they aren't lying." She said "and you can tell, how?" Noelle asked "body language, posturing, facial expression, voice tone." Amrita replied. "Fine, but they don't get weapons." I said "We can live with that." The boy said before the girl could talk.

We quickly began siphoning gas and putting it into some gas cans. I kept an eye on the two new kids, I didn't trust them. Once we got our gas we filled up the car and prepared to drive off "so, what do we do with them?" Noelle asked "tie the up, blindfold them, put them in the back seat." I said. Noelle got some rope out of the back and tied the two up, then she got out two shirts and tied them as blindfolds around their heads.

We helped them into the car before getting in ourselves and driving through the town. "Tell us your names." Amrita said in as friendly a tone as possible "only if you take these blindfolds off." The girl demanded "I can go without knowing their names." I said "Carl, they're being chased too, be reasonable." Amrita said "I am being reasonable; they were with the people who tried to kill us, the people who killed Nathan. I don't think we need to treat them nicely." I said.

Amrita glared at me for a second before speaking "Noelle, pull over." She said "fine, you two obviously need to talk." Noelle replied pulling over. Amrita and I got out and walked around to the back of the car. "Carl, we need to be humane here, we can't treat them like animals." She said "why not, they treated us like cattle for slaughter, hell, it was probably a nice bit of entertainment watching that roadside execution, why should I treat them like humans if they didn't do the same for us?" I asked.

"Carl, these two left that group, they don't agree with those psychos." Amrita said "they allegedly left that group, why didn't they leave that night, or help us, all of us get away from that?" I asked. "I don't know, but they left, and we need to prove we aren't like them, just because their group treated us like shit doesn't mean we need to treat them like shit." She said "fine, I get it an eye for an eye makes and everyone ends up blind, we'll untie them." I said relenting.

I opened the door and took off the two strangers blindfolds "thanks, I don't like not being able to see." The girl said "don't make me wrong on this, I'm gonna untie you two." Amrita said "seriously, don't worry we won't." the boy said. Amrita quickly untied the two and they loosened up a little "well now that we're all being civil I'll introduce myself, my name's Rosana." The girl said "and my name's Ian." The boy said "I'm Amrita, this is Carl, and Noelle's our driver." Amrita said introducing all three of us .

Amrita and I got into the car and closed the doors. I kept my hand on my sidearm just in case, I still wasn't about to trust these people after what they'd done. We all sat in silence for an hour of driving, I wasn't about to talk to either of them and Amrita and Noelle weren't talking for some reason and the two freeloading monsters didn't want to risk pissing me off. When it got dark Noelle turned on the headlights and continued driving. I began to doze off at about nine forty-five and drifted to sleep awhile later.

Suddenly I was shaken awake and the car screeched to a halt and Noelle screamed "what is it?" I asked groggily "look!" she exclaimed pointing at the road. I looked past the passenger seat and saw a row of three bodies on giant stakes in the road. "oh shit." Ian said from the backseat "oh shit is right, there're three people on stakes in the road, literally on fucking stakes!" Rosana yelled "let's move them. I don't wanna linger here and they're in the way." I said grabbing my pistol and a flashlight "Ian, with me." I ordered.

We got out of the car and as we got closer to the bodies we blocked out the car's headlights. I turned on my flashlight and jumped back at the sight of the first body. "What is it?" Ian asked "it-it's Colin, one of my old group." I said. The stake had gone through his face but I could identify him from his clothes. I looked at the next body to bodies and figured they were the Laneys; they were about the same size and were wearing the right clothes.

"Are these all from your old group?" Ian asked "yeah, I just can't figure how they got here. Let's just move them and be done with it." I said pulling out a black bandana I found a week ago and putting it on over my nose and mouth. I looked down and saw each spike's base was a square metal plate about three feet across, I didn't want to know what was keeping the bodies up on the spikes. Ian and I tipped over the spikes and rolled them off the road. It took ten minutes of heavy lifting but we finally moved the spikes and the corpses on them.

He and I walked back to the car and got in "you don't want to know who those were." I said closing the door before Noelle began to drive again. "Now I have to ask, who were they?" Amrita asked Ian looked at me for a second with an expression of hesitation on his face "Colin and the Laneys." I replied "oh my god! But, how?" she asked "that's what I'm wondering." I replied. Whoever did that to them was sick in the head." Noelle said still a bit uneasy.

"That may have been Wild Camon's work." Rosana said "Wild Camon?" Amrita asked "our old groups leader, when the school group decided to send a group to catch youpeople and bring you back they put him in charge, he's an ex army contractor and they decided to put him in charge. At first he seemed to just be a little off, but soon he got crazy, and to make sure it was clear he was top dog in the crew he made the craziest people his officers or as he called them his immortals." Rosana said "a few tried to take control but they failed and Wild Camon got his nickname from, well, how he dealt with the insubordinates." Ian said uneasily.

"Is that when you left?" Noelle asked "sadly no, we left only three and a half weeks ago at the most." Rosana said "hmm. We were attacked over a month ago, we left then. Why'd you wait a week to leave?" Amrita asked "our group attacked the houses a little under a month ago, your group scattered, and then Wild Camon really went crazy when he found you three weren't there. We decided to run away, when we did he started tracking us." Ian said.

"Wait, your group attacked after we left!" I said turning around to look Rosana and Ian in the face. "um, well, yeah. They thought you were still there, when we attacked your group scattered and Wild Camon went ballistic. We ran while he was beating on some guy from OUR group. We've been running ever since." Ian said. "Guys, those bodies were ahead of us, that means whoever killed them is ahead."Amrita said "oh shit!" Noelle said "we could be driving into a trap, Noelle, speed to the next town, don't stop for shit." I said.

"You two need to tell us everything you know about your old group, now." I ordered putting my hand to my pistol. "we aren't too heavily armed, most people have a semi-auto rifle or pistol, a few have shotguns and larger rifles, maybe five at the most. There're about twenty of em' and they're either the crazies of our old group or the people who threatened our old leaders position the most. We've got five vehicles, one pickup truck, three vans, and a hummer. Most of the group is loyal to Wild, we were in the minority, I was in the group because of her, she wanted justice for the killings that happened, not revenge." Ian explained.

"I don't care, how're you for food and gas, what about water?" I asked "good on water last we were there, enough ammo, always low on gas, and wild Camon distributed the food and kept it secret how much he had." Rosana said. "Anything else we need to know?" I pushed "your mom is high up in the group, she's got Camon by the balls if you catch my drift." Ian said. I didn't reply and I took my hand off my pistol. "I hope they aren't waiting in the next town, if they are we're screwed." Amrita said.

Now I had a better idea of what we were up against. We were up against truly insane people, they were ruthless and would be hard to predict, but their unpredictability could work against them. they had numerous people with different goals and were likely to go against their own if prompted, I would be sure to use it to my advantage. But right now, we just needed to run.


	10. Chapter 10

I walked into school after a thirty minute walk; the walk was worth it though. Walking to school kept me out of a car with my mom. When I got to the hall where my friends always hung out I was greeted by my friends and I pulled out my breakfast from my backpack and quickly ate before the bell rang. I just couldn't shake the feeling that today was important, or that something was gonna happen. I just wasn't sure.

The

Walking

Dead

It was early morning and we were still on the road, we'd hoped to hit a town by now but had no such luck. I woke up with my face up against the window, as I sat up I looked back and saw Ian and Rosana in the back both asleep, Amrita was in the passenger seat asleep and Noelle was still awake and driving. "Have you slept at all?" I asked she jumped in surprise when I spoke "oh shit, uh no I haven't, those bodies on stakes, our old friends, I just can't right now." She answered.

"I understand you." I said "when do you think they'll catch us?" I asked her. "I give the four of us a week, maybe a week and a half." Noelle replied. If her estimate was right we were screwed, we could try to fight but we'd almost certainly loose. Noelle as just driving, she never drove like this, she always pulled over to get some sleep. The bodies on the road must've really gotten to her; she seemed to be sort of distant.

Right now I was more worried about the two new ones, Ian and Rosana, I still didn't trust them and I was waiting for one of two things, they proved they could be trusted, or proved otherwise. If they couldn't be trusted then I'd deal with them, there weren't any other options. The sun was just rising over the hills to the east and the shadows of a grove of eucalyptus trees stretched across the road. Ahead I saw a few creepers in the road, they were just shambling around aimlessly, they never really moved with purpose unless they saw food.

Noelle kept driving, she just didn't stop. It got to be noon and she was still driving, she just wouldn't stop, Amrita and I didn't know what to say, Noelle was normally the one to give advice, but right now she needed some. "Noelle, do you want to take a break?" Amrita asked "no, I'm fine, why would I need a break?" Noelle asked back "you've been driving for over thirteen hours straight, you're going to drop if you don't rest." I said "I'm fine; I'm just keeping busy is all. I-I just need to distract myself from last night." Noelle said.

Amrita and I looked at each other concerned "I need to take a leak, can you please pull over?" Ian asked from the back "uh, sure, I guess I could pull over." Noelle mumbled as she moved to the side of the road. "Noelle, I can drive for awhile, just rest." Amrita said "o-okay, I'll rest." She said getting out and getting in to the seat next to me, I moved to the passenger seat after Amrita scooted over to the driver's seat. Ian got back in and sat in the back with Rosana; Amrita then started the car and began to drive.

After about an hour we finally hit a town "finally another town, finding these places would be so much easier with a map." I said "Yeah, we need a map, and a compass, the map is useless without a compass." Amrita said. When we pulled into the town my hopes sank, it looked horrible. The buildings were in ruins, there were corpses in the street, wrecked and overturned cars were scattered around, and there were plenty of creepers around.

"Oh no." I said "what're we gonna do?" Ian asked "not sure, try and find supplies, water, and food. Then hurry out of town." Amrita said "Rosana, stay and guard Noelle and the car." I ordered and Amrita parked the car behind some dumpsters. "Ian you're with Amrita and I." I said grabbing my crossbow and pistol. The three of us got out and quietly moved towards some shops in what must've been downtown.

"Do I get a weapon?" Ian asked "not yet." I said quickly "come on man, I need to defend myself." He whispered "find a weapon, it's yours, we aren't loaning you ours." I said "Carl, come on." Amrita pleaded. "Fine, there's a hardware store over there, we'll get weapons there." I said "good." Amrita said as we hurried to the store. Once we got inside we made our way to the tools and looked for some weapons. "Carl, look for something too, you need to replace your machete." Amrita reminded, a week ago I'd lost my machete in another town that was crowded with creepers.

I looked around and found nothing, the store was picked clean. "hey!" Ian said from around a corner "what?" I asked "I found some stuff." He replied Amrita and I hurried to see what he found. When we rounded the corner we found a walker trapped under a fallen cabinet in an office, on its back and belt I saw a machete and the handle of something else. I quickly put an arrow in its head and retrieved the weapons, a standard machete and something else, something awesome.

From the dead creeps belt I pulled a tomahawk, it had a polycarbonate handle, a steel axe head and on the other side of the head was a small hammer, I recognized it as a rifleman's tomahawk. "Dibs on the hawk." I said feeling the weight of it in my hand "fine." Ian said taking the machete and its sheath. As soon as his hands touched the machete I became nervous, I didn't like him having a weapon, and I sure as hell didn't like him having a weapon near Amrita.

If he made so much as half a wrong move I'd kill him, I don't care what Amrita would say or do to me for doing it. I kept my eye on him as we moved through the store and back out onto the street. We had to move slowly, picking our feet up as we walked and stepping very lightly. Every couple minutes we would have to stop and hide from a creeper or two, this town was completely overrun.

We made our way into the grocery store after twenty minutes of walking. We slipped in and saw that there was still some stuff in the shelves. We moved as a small group down the aisles, grabbing anything still drinkable or edible. When we finally finished making our way through the Safeway we'd gathered up some dogfood and cans.

We began to walk out the door when I saw a few creeps starting to walk past. I grabbed Amrita and jumped to the left to get out of sight; Ian quickly followed us and hid out of sight from the creepers. "You could have just said hide." Amrita said "sorry, I just reacted there." I whispered "how many?" Ian asked. I peeked around the door frame and saw twenty creeps slowly making their way past.

We waited for a few minutes while they shambled on by. After awhile I decided to look to see if it was clear. When I peered out I saw a creeper turn around and I quickly hid again "what?" Ian asked "I think one saw me." I whispered before I heard the growl and felt a hand grab my shoulder.

A creeper had its hand on me, I had to do something fast. I pushed off the ground and pushed the creeper backwards, I tumbled with it out of the doorway and tried to escape its grasp; I heard more footsteps and a button click and he sound of meal sliding over leather.

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! Amrita must have been shooting, and then I heard a crunch and a sliieekch! Sound and the creeper I was struggling against dropped on me. I pushed it off and saw Ian with his bloody machete standing over me "get up man." He said extending a hand. I got up on my own and grabbed my crossbow "thanks man."I said before taping Amrita on the shoulder "we gotta run now!" I said over two more gunshots "okay." she said calmly as she squeezed off the last shot in her revolver.

The three of us hurried through the streets avoiding the creeps we could and killing the others. I had my pistol drawn and was picking off the creepers Amrita missed Ian was covering our backs and making sure none of them got close to us. The longer we were shooting the more creeps were coming out of their hiding places, and there were more in our way.

"Do you think Noelle and Rosana know we're in trouble?" Amrita asked taking out another creep "they must've heard the noise!" Ian said before slicing the head off one creep. I ignored their banter and moved forward, using my fixed blade knife and new tomahawk to take down the creeps that attacked me. We couldn't keep this up for long, eventually we would tire and be overwhelmed.

Suddenly I heard a car horn and turned to see our car, with Noelle at the wheel and she was driving straight at us. I looked and saw an ambulance ahead that would block her way "Guys, just get past the ambulance!" I yelled pulling my knife from a creeps skull. I looked and saw Amrita turn and run towards the ambulance; Ian was already running towards it. I ran towards it but saw two creepers block the space between it and the car that the others had already slipped through. I ran up to it and stepped up on the car's bumper and jumped, landing my arms on top of the ambulance. I quickly pulled myself up and ran over it, and jumped onto the roof of the car "GO I'M ON GO!" I yelled grabbing the bike rack as Noelle drove away from the creeps.

After we got out of town Noelle stopped to let me get down off the roof of the car and get inside. When I hopped down Amrita got out of the car and threw her arms around me "I'm okay, I'm okay." I said holding her "I know, I was just-" she started "get in love birds, we need to move." Rosana said rudely. Amrita and I got in the car and sat down in the back; I quickly checked the gun bag to make sure none were missing.

"Rosana give the pistol back." I ordered drawing my pistol; I pressed it to the back of her head. "So you'll give Ian a weapon but not me." she said "I don't trust Ian much, but I don't trust you at all." I said taking the pistol from her pocket. Ian looked at me with a puzzled expression, it was like he didn't get why I didn't trust or like Rosana at all. "We're gonna need to defend ourselves you know." She argued "yeah, but you don't need a weapon right now, add me not trusting you, you stealing a gun, and you get me not giving you a weapon." I said "I'm sorry, but he's right, you've done nothing to prove you're trustworthy." Amrita said.

"What, Ian saved your lives-"Rosana started "we're talking about you not him." I said. Rosana instantly stopped talking; we drove for another two hours in silence before we came to what used to be a rest stop. "We can rest here for awhile." Noelle said "sounds good." I said "are we gonna sleep in the car?" Rosana asked "yeah." Amrita answered leaning her head on my shoulder. "Are you serious?" Rosana asked "completely." I answered holding Amrita's hand "we can't all just sleep." Rosana said "I'm staying awake." Noelle said loading her 22. Pistol "great." Rosana said.

"By the way new two, I've got three rules in my car, no relieving yourself within ten feet of the car, no opening the doors without warning us first, and no sex." Noelle said "wait, no sex, not even if we got the car to ourselves?" Rosana asked "no, I don't need anyone getting pregnant right now." Noelle said. "Have you two actually followed that rule?" Rosana whispered "yeah." Amrita replied "and you two have been fine?" Ian asked "yeah," I answered ", now get some fucking sleep." I closed my eyes and drifted to sleep myself.

I woke to the car lurching forward and the roar of the engine "what's going on?" I asked before a loud CRACK! Broke the air "oh shit!" Amrita cursed getting her head down and pushing me down too. "It's the crazy bitch!" Ian yelled "shit my mom?" I asked "yeah, that one!" he replied. Noelle sped down the road away from the gunshots.

Suddenly I heard engines roaring and looked up to see two trucks speeding after us. "They're fucking crazy!" Noelle yelled; I looked back and saw the two trucks gaining on us "Noelle, go as fast as you can, they're probably still after me, I want you to put as much distance between us and them before pulling over and letting me get their attention." I ordered grabbing a rifle and my new tomahawk and knife.

"Carl no! you can't do this! what about us?" she asked "I'm doing this for all of you, Amrita, you're in charge now, take care of everyone." I said as the car's engine roared. "Carl get ready!" Noelle yelled over the engine "Amrita, I love you." I said before kissing her. "Alright Carl, now!" Noelle yelled as she ground to a halt. I squeezed Amrita's hand once before jumping out of the car and shoving the door shut as I ran "GO! RUN NOW!" I yelled.

I started running before I heard the door open and shut again, I turned around as I ran and saw Amrita with her rifle and bat running after me. "What the hell!" I yelled "I'm not leaving you, now let's run!" she yelled as we took off into the woods. We ran as fast as we could into the woods, I heard car doors and yelling behind us {they're following us.} I thought {they sure as hell are following us.}


	11. Chapter 11

Amrita and I ran as fast as we could into the woods, we didn't know where to, but we knew where to run from. Behind us I heard footsteps and yells, occasionally there was a gunshot but their aim was horrible. We past a few creepers and a few seconds after I heard screams of panic and pain, for once I was thankful for those monsters.

The

Walking

Dead

Leaves and twigs crunched and snapped under Amrita and my feet, angry screams and curses roared from behind us, it sounded as though the whole forest was collapsing behind us, there were so many, but we didn't dare look back. Ahead I could hear a rush of running water; the river had to be large to be heard over the noise of our pursuers. Eventually I could see the end to the woods and the sound of water was booming "Get ready to jump!" I yelled to Amrita as we approached the cliff.

Suddenly the cliff was on us, we were there and we jumped. The cliff was thirty feet high and the water was dark and deep, the river flowed quickly and was free of rocks and debris. When we jumped it seemed that the world slowed down, I had time to turn and look at Amrita, her eyes were fixed on the water below, and I had time to look to the river and see every ripple and wave. Then I was in the water next thing I knew, I flailed my limbs and tried to paddle to the surface, but I was too heavy. I was sinking.

I quickly ditched my backpack, my blanket, spare clothes, and food was in it but those weren't worth my life. After I released my pack I was able to paddle to the surface, I gasped and got my breath as I was pulled downstream. I looked around and saw Amrita swimming with her rifle and bat downstream, I turned and looked at the cliff and saw the man who must have been Wild Camon standing on the cliff. A man next to him gestured around the cliff and without looking away from me he rammed what must have been a knife into his chest and pushed him off the cliff; he yelled something before seconds later his people started jumping.

"Swim Amrita, swim!" I yelled as they jumped off the cliff. Amrita and I swam towards a bend in the river where we could run back into the woods. We dragged ourselves from the river and exhausted, ran again into the woods to escape the trackers chasing us. We were getting tired, our pace was slowing, we both had trouble standing on our own, we were leaning on each other just to stand, and running was a difficult task; hopefully it was the same for the bastards chasing us.

"What's the plan?" Amrita panted "got none, just run." I said between breaths. We were moving as fast as we could but I didn't think it was fast enough. Now we heard people chasing us again, very few people, but they refused to give up, they were all mad. "Keep running, keep running." I panted trying to keep Amrita running, I could feel her getting weaker, we were soaked with water and sweat and we were getting exhausted. We passed some large bushes and I made my move "stay put this time!" I ordered pushing her into the bushes and using some of my last strength to keep running.

I sprinted into the woods deliberately making as much noise as possible to attract the psychos chasing us. I came to a little slope I wasn't ready for and rolled down, I got to my feet and ran again, if I stopped I was dead, if I kept running I'd drop, I couldn't win. I quickly felt my pistol holster to see if I'd lost it in the river, I felt the pistol's grip and felt a little relieved.

I heard some rustling and saw a creeper standing up from under a small bush; I pushed him behind me and continued running. I heard a panicked scream about a minute later and knew the creeper got someone. Suddenly I ran into a cliff, this time though I was on the bottom of the cliff. I could hear footsteps drawing nearer and I turned to see my mom, she had her rifle in hand, on the end of the rifle was a bayonet.

"Hi mom." I said moving to raise my rifle "don't even try!" she yelled raising her rifle. "okay." I said dropping my rifle and tomahawk "what do you want mom?" I asked "I want my son! I want to have a life again, I don't want you! You aren't my son anymore! You killed my son!" she yelled aiming the rifle at me. Suddenly there was a loud crack and I saw pink mist cloud explode from about midway on my mom's bicep she screamed in agony gripping the bullet would as she fell down.

I looked behind her and saw Amrita with her rifle shaking, not from guilt or shock, but in exhaustion. "Amrita!" I exclaimed in joy taking a step towards her she took a step towards me before the man I assumed was Wild Camon jumped from the bushes and stabbed her in the back "NO!" I yelled drawing my pistol.

Wild Camon jumped into the woods and as quickly as he'd appeared he disappeared. I fired into the woods angrily "I'LL KLL YOU! I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!"I yelled repeatedly pulling the trigger of my pistol. Then I looked and saw my mom reaching for her rifle, I stormed over and I stomped on her right arm she hollered in pain. "YOU ARE GOING TO PAY!" I yelled kicking her in the face sending her back two feet; I reached down and grabbed my tomahawk. "Please, don't, I'm your mom." She cried "no, not any more, since I'm not your son, you're not my mom." I said raising my tomahawk and bringing it down on her right bicep three times, each time I hit as hard as I could.

Again and again she yelled in horrid pain, there was a crunch and the bone broke along with the muscle tearing. I then pulled out two lighters, breaking one open and pouring the lighter fluid on her stub, then with the other lighter I lit it on fire. The woman yelled in agony, terrifying agony "you wish you were dead don't you!" I yelled as writhed in pain "but I want you to live, I want you to go back to your group and tell them I did this! Tell them each one of them will die screaming, in agony, and that it'll be slow, and that I'll just smile and softly say, it'll all be over soon." I snarled before pulling her up and forcing her to walk into the woods, she stumbled away into the bush.

I grabbed my rifle, slinging it over my shoulder, then I went to Amrita's body and took her bat, rifle and revolver "I'm so sorry babe, I love you so much and I'm sorry. They won't get away with this." I promised. I then took to the trees, climbing through the branches like an animal, I hid a rifle on one branch, Amrita's bat on another a few meters away, and stuffer her pistol in my pocket. Then I waited.

I saw five men following Wild Camon and the woman missing an arm. "He's this way; he won't leave that little whore's body." She said stumbling through the woods I took aim with my silenced berretta and pulled the trigger, shooting out her throat. "Oh shit!"one man yelled running off "no, stay together, they can't get us as a group!" Camon yelled; I climbed through the trees after him, running and crawling on large branches with cover. He tripped over a tree root and fell to the ground dropping his gun; I leapt from the tree and brought my tomahawk down on his skull, imbedding it in deep in his brain, I quickly pulled my tomahawk out and ran through the brush back to his group.

I looked and saw they all stood in a circle shaking in fear. I grabbed a rock and threw it into the woods to my left, the sound drew all their attention and I quickly used my rifle and shot another one of them, this time in the stomach, he screamed and writhed on the ground. "oh shit, Vince man, we'll help you I promise." Another man said "ignore him, we can't do shit for him now!" Camon ordered.

In this time I had worked my way back into the trees and had found my way to Amrita's rifle. I grabbed it and aimed at the man helping Vince, blowing his brains out before jumping to the tree nearby and climbing to the her bat. I used my silenced pistol one more time shooting one of the last three men in the chest twice. Camon and his last remaining man stood back to back now, they inched their way towards the tree nearby.

"kids, stop, we'll leave, never see you again, just let us live, you've gotten even now, you can all let us leave, we're all that's left." Camon pleaded "you think there's an us here, it's just me." I said grabbing the bat and jumping down from the tree and running through the bush. The two men looked around nervously, neither had a large gun, Camon just had his pistol, the other man had a crowbar. "please kid, just let us live, we only were after you guys cause' you killed our people-" Camon started "that's a lie, you're a killer, a psychopath waiting for an excuse to kill, Ian and Rosana told me that much." I said as I moved through the darkening forest.

"you got them, they, they're lying, those two're killers, they killed two of ours and left-" he began "another lie. You can't quit lying. You're insane, trying the same thing over and over and expecting the result to change, you're a terrible liar, you're a lowlife, and you aren't even worth killing. Not that it changes my mind about doing so though." I said "please kid, don't be like your mom, be reasonable, please, I saw who you are, when we caught you that one time, you were a caring person, you were levelheaded, logical." Camon said.

"Yeah I was. But I saw what that got me, now I know I've got to be illogical, unpredictable, to survive, I need to be cold. I need to be ruthless, I need to be quiet." I said shutting up. "Kid, kid are you there, answer me man." Camon said "come on, listen I'll walk into the river, I'll end my life, just quit the mind games man, talk to me please." He begged. I didn't respond, I just moved, trying to find the perfect angle of attack "ANSWER ME!" Camon yelled.

I threw my tomahawk at the man to his back, sticking it in his forehead, then I rushed Camon, he began to turn when he heard the SCLURTCHK of his man's skull. He wasn't fast enough, I hit him in the right side of his hip, There was a crunch sound. I quickly spun the other way and hit him in the left shoulder. Then I kicked out his legs from under him and pulled my knife, stabbing it through his right wrist, causing him to release his pistol. He screamed in pain, I quickly hit the backs of his knees with my bat, then I broke his left hand with it.

He shook and twitched in pain, he wasn't able to move, just convulse and make the sounds of pain. "You destroyed the one good thing in this world, you stabbed her right in the back, you deserve a thousand times worse punishment than I can give, but I'm still going to punish you." I said removing my knife from his wrist and stabbing him in the collarbone "AAAGGHHEAA!" he screamed as I twisted the knife.

His warm blood squirted out of the veins I'd punctured and splashed my face, but I didn't care, I twisted and twisted the knife, again and again. Each twist made him scream in pain, he convulsed under my weight, unable to escape the source of his suffering. "You didn't think about it, you thought you could just kill us one by one, but you know what, you didn't think, hmm, maybe he's in love with that girl, you just wanted to kill, kill, kill, and never have any consequence. You know what, you're a fool, you should die, probably will, but I'm going to stop." I said pulling the knife from his shoulder. "You'll have half a chance of living. And if I ever see you again, I will do a hundred times worse than this to you. Now let's see if I can stop this bleeding." I said flicking my lighter on…

_**Meanwhile…**_

I drove, I just drove, I didn't know where to, Carl and Amrita were gone, they went to distract the trackers from going after us and it worked. But I had no idea how to find them, where to go, what to do. "What do you guys want to do?" I asked "find a place to sleep, maybe a place to set up." Ian said "maybe we should stay on the road, so Amrita and Carl can find us." Rosana said. We gave her a weird look "hey, just cause he and I don't get along doesn't make him or me any less part of this group." She said.

"We aren't staying in the open, let's pack three packs and get off the road for the night, maybe we're just gonna belt into some trees and sleep there." Ian said. "That sounds like a good plan, let's do it." I said pulling over, the new two packed up backpacks and weapons while I stood guard. I hoped that Carl and Amrita were okay…

_**One day later...**_

I walked through the woods carrying my weapons, yesterday was horrible, after what I did to those monsters, and what I had to do to- nevermind, yesterday was the lowest point for me. I went lower than Camon, I hit rock bottom and hit it so hard it fell down a notch. I went to my lowest point and if Amrita knew what I'd done she would have been disappointed in me, she always said I was better than that, but yesterday I proved I wasn't. I proved I was worse than those people, worse than the creepers, I had become what other people would fear, if society were still standing I'd be the lowest kind of criminal. I knew from that point on I'd have to be better, better for her. I needed to prove her right.


	12. Chapter 12

I woke up still belted into the tree; the morning light was just trickling in through the leaves and high branches. There were a few birds chirping and some small animals just waking up and starting to become active. I looked to the trees near me and saw Rosana and Ian still belted in as well. I quickly set my feet on the branches below me and unbelted from the tree, I climbed down and walked to the car to wait for Carl and Amrita, I just wanted them to get back. I heard a twig snap and turned around with my pistol ready…

The

Walking

Dead

**Five hours later**

I stumbled through the woods, it was almost noon and I was lost. I carried two rifles over one shoulder, my pistol in its holster and Amrita's revolver in my pocket, I had my knife in its sheath and I carried her bat and my tomahawk in hand. I had no food or water; my clothes were still wet from the jump into the river yesterday. I was alone in the middle of the woods, left to my thoughts "your fault." I heard, I spun around looking for the source of the voice "-failed!" I heard again behind me.

I kept walking, trying to keep the same bearing. "-because of you!" the voice said again "-killed me!" I echoed. It was a woman's voice, it seemed to echo and jump through the forest, it was all around me. "Carl, you killed me!" Amrita's voice said, right next to my ear; I jumped and screamed, falling over and landing on my back.

I looked all around and saw no one, not Amrita, not anyone, I was alone. I got to my feet and begun walking again, and again the voice, Amrita's voice, spat daggers at me. Everything she said was true "monster!" I looked around for her "murderer!" she seemed to be everywhere "failure!" she said "I died because of you." I heard behind me. I fell to my knees and cried "I know, it's my fault, all of this. we'd probably be at the school, safe if it hadn't been for me." I sobbed "I'm so sorry Amrita, I'm sorry I let you down!" I just cried, I was a wreck.

"Hey dude, are you okay?" a voice asked from behind me "you aren't real." I replied "yeah I am. I guess you answered my question. Do you need help?" he asked. I felt a hand on my shoulder, I quickly turned around, sweeping out his feet and crawled backwards away from the stranger "fuck dude, is that how you say hello or some shit?" he asked angrily getting up. He was tall, had a dark tan, long black hair, and an expression of distrust seemingly carved into his brow.

"n-no, I just have been having a weird day." I said "well, sorry I have shitty timing, I'm Caleb." He said extending his hand "Carl." I said taking it and pulling myself up. "Shit, the new people told me to look for you; is Amrita around or is she lost?" Caleb asked "she, well she's not around anymore." I said holding back a new rush of tears. "I'm sorry man, but if you come with me I can take you to your friends, they're worried sick about you man." He said. "Where are they?" I asked "back with my people, I found your friends by your car, they sent me to find you." Caleb said "okay." I said following the stranger. I never would do this, but I just didn't care anymore.

**Four hours later **

Noelle paced back and forth "Noelle calm down, Caleb will bring Carl back safely, he will." Gabby said calming Noelle. Apparently Gabby was part of Noelle, Carl, and Amrita's old group. "You're probably right; I'm just worried is all." Noelle said "Ian and I are going to stake out a hut, see you all in a few." Rosana said grabbing me by the arm.

**Minutes later**

I got off the canoe and waded through a foot of mud before stepping on solid ground. "Come on, I'm sure your friends are anxious to see you." Caleb said "yeah, I-I just don't know how to tell them what happened." I said "you'll figure out a way. Now go let your friends know you're okay." he said patting me on the shoulder.

I walked behind him to the camp; it was a short walk to a decently sized camp of huts, all in two circles, one inside the other. Each hut was about twenty feet across and circular; they all had one door and thatched roofs. They seemed to be short, only about five feet tall. The walls were made of adobe bricks shaped for their spots on the walls.

I set one foot into the main camp before my friends greeted me. "Carl!" Noelle exclaimed hugging me tightly "you had me so worried!" she said. I happened to glance at Caleb, who looked away quickly hiding an expression of jealousy. "Hey Carl, good to see you alive." Ian said putting a hand on my shoulder "hey." Rosana nodded "hey." I returned. "Where's Amrita?" Noelle asked looking around "is she at the canoes, or in g straight to a hut to sleep?" she asked.

I opened my mouth to talk but couldn't form a word, I just shook my head once and looked at the ground avoiding her eyes. "Oh god. Carl, I'm so sorry." She said hugging me again, this time closer and tighter "we're all here for you." She said. she let me go and sat down in the shade of a tree, resting her head on one hand, silently letting tears roll down her cheeks.

"What happened?" I heard a familiar voice ask "Gabby?" I asked "Carl! You're alive!" she said happily running over and hugging me "where's Amri-" she stopped herself "I'm so sorry." She said "thanks, um, I'm gonna go sit down somewhere to get settled." I said walking through to the other side of camp. I passed the tree where Noelle was and saw Caleb sit down and put his arm around her, I eventually found a spot with a small pond enclosed in reeds and cattails and sat down.

I picked up rocks and threw them into the pond, creating cascading ripples. I eventually just sat and stared at the water, looking at the reflection of the tree tops and sky. "I love you. You know that right?" Amrita asked I looked to the side and saw no one there. Then I looked down at the surface of the water and next to my reflection I saw Amrita's.

"I was angry before, but it was my fault, I'm sorry for blaming you Carl." She said "don't be, it was my fault, all the bad stuff that happened to us was my fault." I said "no, it wasn't your fault. Things may have turned out differently, but from what I can see we'd probably had to leave the Orchard sometime." She said putting her hand over mine. "But those psychos wouldn't be after us." I stated "maybe, but maybe not. Maybe all that happened was inevitable." She said "how can you say that?" I asked not noticing how loudly I spoke.

"Carl, who are you talking to?" Gabby asked, I looked up to answer but before I did I quickly looked back at the reflection in the pond and saw no one but myself "I wasn't talking." I said "could'a sworn you were, guess not." She shrugged. "Hey Gabby." I said "yeah." She replied "I, I was talking to Amrita, or my minds image of her." I whispered "it's okay, I went through something similar after Colin died. For a week every night in my dreams he'd sit down on a bench and talk to me like none of this had ever happened. I know what you're going through." She said.

"Thanks for keeping my secret." I said "no problem, as long as you keep mine. By the way I think it might help if you make some more friends." Gabby said "yeah, I'll try." I said getting up and walking over to a hut and setting down my things. I set down the rifles, unclipped my pistol's holster and set it on the floor, set Amrita's revolver down, and put down my tomahawk and Amrita's bat.

I sat down and went through all my things. I unloaded the rifles, the revolver, and my pistol, took all my spare clips out of my pockets and made a pile of all my ammo. "Carl, can we talk?" Noelle asked "sure." I said "what happened?" she asked sitting down next to me." I was cornered by a woman and Amrita shot her in the arm, I looked and saw Amrita there and then that guy, Camon came out of the brush and stabbed her in the back with this huge bowie knife. I was so mad, I slaughtered his people, and tortured him, he's probably dead from his injuries, but I can't be sure." I said. Noelle looked at me for one second "you made him suffer right?" she asked "yeah, he suffered." I replied.

"DINNER"S READY!" someone called "let's go eat." I said "sure." Noelle replied as we got up. I hadn't realized how hungry I was until I saw food, actual food "my Grandpa caught most of the squirrel." Caleb said "don't sell yourself short, you contributed just as much as I." an old man who looked similar to Caleb except with a short beard and grey hair said. We all began to eat, I grabbed a plate of squirrel and some wild edibles and ate, I was starving. When I finished my first plate I got another, and another.

When everyone was done eating the people all went to their huts, I found the hut I put my weapons in earlier and found a blanket inside. The inside of the hut was already made up for someone to stay; there was a bed and a small end table. I sat down on the bed before lying down and sleeping. I still felt alone, I just couldn't help but think things could have turned out differently, better. All of this was my fault, and I knew it.

I woke up the next morning late, and gathered up Amrita's old stuff and moved it to one corner of my hut. I slowly got dressed, armed, and left my hut to walk around camp for a bit. "Hi Carl." Gabby said as she walked passed me "hey." I replied "so, do you still have those dreams?" I asked quietly "sometimes. I don't think they'll ever really go away, why'd you ask?" she said puzzled "I just am looking for some advice." I whispered.

Gabby quickly looked around before walking up to me, and stopping very close before speaking "don't try and forget her, accept it and move on. But always remember her, cause' she'll always be in your heart, your mind, and there's nothing you can do. Trust me." she said grimly before walking away. I walked over and sat by the pond, and looked at the reflection, Amrita sat down and put her hands on mine.


	13. Chapter 13 Preview

I sat in the tree with my rifle held tightly in my hands, it was freezing but I stayed still. The sky was a sheet of grey and it was drizzling lightly, I could see drops accumulating on the leaves nearby slowly but steadily. I heard some rustling in the bushes and looked to see a deer walking below me; I silently aimed my rifle at its head before squeezing the trigger and killing the deer.

I jumped down to the ground and checked the deer for bites, then I began dragging it back to the canoe. I tied it to the canoe and began paddling back to camp. I looked next to my canoe and in the surface of the water I saw Amrita sitting in the back of the canoe "hi." I said "hi, so, you're getting good at hunting now huh?" she asked "yeah, Gramps says I'm a natural." I replied.

"So, how're you doing?" she asked "fine." I said "no, how are you doing Carl?" she asked forcefully "I'm doing as good as I can be doing, I'm going crazy, I-I miss you so much." I said as I stopped paddling. "Carl, you're strong, go on, move on." She said "I can't-" I said looking up to find Amrita gone again.


	14. Chapter 13

_**These Ills We Have**_

It had been three days since I'd arrived at the swamp camp, five since I'd lost Amrita, over a month since I'd been forced out by my own group, and over two months since the dead started walking. In this time the world has changed and for all I know this is how it'll be until the day I die.

The

Walking

Dead

I sat in the tree with my rifle held tightly in my hands, it was freezing but I stayed still. The sky was a sheet of grey and it was drizzling lightly, I could see drops accumulating on the leaves nearby slowly but steadily. I heard some rustling in the bushes and looked to see a deer walking below me; I silently aimed my rifle at its head before squeezing the trigger and killing the deer.

I jumped down to the ground and checked the deer for bites, then I began dragging it back to the canoe. I tied it to the canoe and began paddling back to camp. I looked next to my canoe and in the surface of the water I saw Amrita sitting in the back of the canoe "hi." I said "hi, so, you're getting good at hunting now huh?" she asked "yeah, Gramps says I'm a natural." I replied.

"So, how're you doing?" she asked "fine." I said "no, how are you doing Carl?" she asked forcefully "I'm doing as good as I can be doing, I'm going crazy, I-I miss you so much." I said as I stopped paddling. "Carl, you're strong, go on, move on." She said "I can't-" I said looking up to find Amrita gone again.

I quickly paddled to camp and got the deer to the cooking fire before walking to my hut and dropping off my weapons. After I dropped my weapons off I went to sit and read by the pond; I passed Noelle and Caleb who were sitting under the oak tree. Noelle was sitting next to Caleb giggling, he had his arm around her and was grinning happily, she kissed him on the cheek and rolled on top of him. Luke walked past about then "you two realize there are small children around right?"he said sarcastically Caleb flipped him off without looking at him.

Gabby and Tyler were sitting together by Gabby's hut, she sat holding his hand with her head resting on his shoulder, he was stroking her hand with his thumb. Ian and Rosana were sitting under two small trees. Ian had his arms around her waist, she had her arms around his neck and they were kissing passionately. I walked passed them and sat by my pond and looked at the mirror-smooth surface, Amrita sat down next to me, put her arms around me and leaned her head on my shoulder.

"It sucks huh?" Luke asked "what?" I asked not looking up from the pond "being alone." He said "yeah, it sucks." I said holding back some frustration. Luke was very annoying, the guy had no mental filter when it came to offending people, he seemed to take joy out of it sometimes. "Hey, didn't your girlfriend die before you got here, you couldn't protect her or something, that must've sucked." He said, I looked up and saw the others look from me to Luke then back to me again nervously.

"I mean, she must've been hot if you're this broken up about her, must've been great in-" he said before I leapt up and tackled him "SHUT UP!" I yelled punching him three times "NEVER TALK ABOUT AMRITA AGAIN!" I yelled kneeing him in the groin before pulling him up and pinning him against a hut "if you ever even think about saying anything about Amrita again I will not hesitate to beat you into the ground, DO YOU UNDERSTAND?" I asked.

He coughed once weakly "I ASKED YOU, DO YOU UNDERSTAND ASSHOLE!" I yelled; he nodded slowly. I let him go and he fell to his knees, I looked around and saw the whole camp staring at me. I walked to my hut and sat on my bed. I heard a knock outside "Carl, it's Noelle. Can I come in?" she asked "sure." I said; she walked in and sat next to me on the bed "I heard all of that Carl, but what was that? You haven't ever done that before, just blown up and gone ape-shit on someone. What's wrong?" she asked.

"Nothing, I'm just recovering is all. He touched a nerve and didn't take the hint." I said "he touched more than one nerve by the looks of it, this has something to do with Amrita doesn't it?" she asked "yeah, and that son of a bitch, well, you heard what he was saying, l lost it. That was beyond disrespectful on his part, I'm surprised he hasn't been hit before by anybody with how he talks to people." I said.

Noelle was about to speak when there was another knock from outside "Carl, we need to talk. Now." Maurice, this groups leader demanded "fine, be right there." I said getting up and leaving my hut. Maurice was tall, muscular, and very dark skinned. He shaved his head so his hair was always short. He looked pissed "what the hell was that Carl?" he asked "did you hear what he said, he insulted my dead girlfriend, you know, the one who got murdered five days ago. You're surprised I beat him up? You should be surprised I didn't kill him." I said

"Hey, you gotta deal with your anger some other way; you can't just beat on people, what if you had killed him? We can't afford to lose the manpower, not with the world the way it is." Maurice said. "How do you suggest I deal with my anger, scream into a pillow?" I asked sarcastically "no, come with me." he said. He led me to his hut and he shut the door "Carl, you need to target your aggression outside this group." He said "yeah, cause' killing creeps is gonna help what Luke said." I said "you missed the key word in my sentence there, outside our group. There's another group that's been troubling us for awhile now, you could help us deal with them." Maurice said.

"So you want to use me like an attack dog, point me one way and let me go? No fucking thank you." I said turning to leave "if you say no you've gotta go then son, I can't just allow outbursts like that to go without some punishment." Maurice said. "Fine, tell me all you know about this other group." I said "they're a few miles east of us, they easily number sixty maybe more, but not much less, they've got plenty of weapons, mostly close combat stuff, spears and clubs and shit, a few guns, but we've got em' in that department thanks to you and your friends." He said.

"And what do you want me to do?" I asked "be ready if they give us trouble." He said "that's pretty vague, ready to do what exactly?" I questioned "be ready to fight back, any way you can." Maurice said before leaving the hut. I left a few seconds later and walked to the pond, I sat down but couldn't look in the reflection. "Hey Carl, how're you doing?" Gabby asked walking over and sitting next to me "eh, I've been better." I shrugged.

"So what'd Maurice say?" she asked "apparently another groups' been giving you guys trouble and I'm now our secret weapon." I said. "And you're fine with that?"she asked "no, but he didn't give me a choice, either be the attack dog or leave." I replied. We sat for a few more minutes in silence, I hadn't really hung out with Gabby much before I left, she never had seemed as insightful before.

I wondered who else had died out of the old group, were Mark and Steph still alive, was I the only one of the original six still alive, were the two of them still out there alive, or were they creepers, or dead? "Gabby, what happened?" I asked "what do you mean?" she asked back "to our old group, what happened after I left?" I asked "well, after you and the others left it was awkward around camp, two days later we got attacked, Steph told us to run, scatter, and we did." she said.

"How'd Colin get caught? And what happened to Steph and Mark?" I asked "well, Colin and I got separated, Steph and Mark took off together with most of the weapons you guys didn't take, and the Laneys tried to hole up in their house." She said. We sat in more silence, this time we didn't speak, Gabby got up and left. I sat by the pond for another half hour, alone.


	15. Chapter 14 preview

As we walked it began to grow darker and the visibility got worse. We were walking relatively noisily, stepping heavily, talking for awhile then being quiet. I heard a rustling to my left and saw a creeper caught on a wire "oh shit!" I exclaimed "dude, that's sick." Ian said, then I heard more footsteps and turned to my left seeing a creep behind Ian "LOOK OUT!" I yelled raising my tomahawk. He turned around in time to grab its wrists to keep it back "DUDE HIT IT! HIT IT NOW!" he yelled "I can't it's moving around too much!"I yelled as the creep struggled on top of Ian to get its jaws on him.

If I swung now I could miss, it could deflect and get Ian, if I decapitated it the head would fall and bite Ian on the face. Suddenly here was a BANG! And I looked up to see a man with a large revolver standing on the other side of some wire "you two okay?" he asked


	16. Chapter 14

It was probably noon; it was hard to tell with the overcast weather though. I sat by myself, a habit I was developing, I just couldn't bring myself to be around people, I was bad luck. I just wished things would be how they were a little over a month ago, back at the almost untouched town where Amrita and I were happy, where all my old friends were alive. I just wanted things to change.

The

Walking

Dead

The mist hung over the village, the past two days it had been a constant presence and we were all used to it. "I heard what Maurice said to you Carl, and I know you're conflicted-" Gramps began "I'm not conflicted, I know exactly what I'll do if my friends are threatened." I said coldly "that's why I'm worried, I already know how I'm going to react. I already can picture the messed up shit I'll do. That's why I'm scared." I said "Carl, Maurice may think you'll do as he says, but when the time comes he has no power over you, it's all up to you, you could just walk away so to speak, hide from them, avoid a fight, maybe negotiate." Gramps said calmly.

"I can't just not fight, if I don't then I'm screwed, I'll get kicked out." I said "truthfully, most people here seem to like you, Maurice can try kicking you out but if most of us are behind you he can't really do anything." Gramps said before slowly walking away. About ten minutes later I got up and looked for Caleb and Gramps, I found them by the center campfire talking "do either of you guys know where the camp that's been bothering you guys is?" I asked; l the two of them exchanged odd glances "yeah, we do. We'd just prefer not to have to go back there, last time we were there something bad happened, long story short we lost two people." Caleb said "but why do you want to go there is the question?" Gramps asked.

"I want to see what I'm going up against, they don't know me, I can infiltrate their group, maybe get some info, see if I can bargain a deal." I said Gramps thought for a second before speaking "I'll guide you there, but then you're on your own." Gramps said "no I won't, I'll take Ian with me, as backup." I said. They exchanged glances again before speaking "tell Maurice what you're doing and get Ian onboard, I'm in." Gramps said "alright, meet me back here in ten." I said.

**4 minutes later**

"So in are you in?" I asked after explaining my plan "uh, sure I guess, but why me man?" he asked "you're the only one I trust to have my back in this situation, Noelle isn't good in a bad situation, and I hate to say this but, I still don't hundred percent trust Rosana yet." I said. "If I'm your choice then I'm in bro, but you have to solve the shit with Rosana man, she's open to it, you just need to tell her you trust her, something man." Ian said "but you're in, right?" I asked "yeah, I'm in." he said.

**6 minutes later**

After telling Maurice my plan We canoed across the water to the woods and began running through the woods to where Gramps said the other camp was. After three hour's run we stopped "keep moving this direction, make sure you make some noise, hell just ask if anyone is there, but this is as far as I go." Gramps said "alright, see you in a week then." I said "good luck." Gramps said before starting back towards camp. "No turning back now." I said "yeah, great." Ian said as we walked towards the camp.

We weren't as well armed as we'd like to be, we had to appear as if we were struggling to get by, I had my tomahawk, two knives, and a silenced makarov pistol with minimal ammo. Ian had his machete, an unsilenced pistol, and a flick-knife. We both had a backpack with no food, a water bottle with almost no water, and a blanket each.

As we walked it began to grow darker and the visibility got worse. We were walking relatively noisily, stepping heavily, talking for awhile then being quiet. I heard a rustling to my left and saw a creeper caught on a wire "oh shit!" I exclaimed "dude, that's sick." Ian said, then I heard more footsteps and turned to my left seeing a creep behind Ian "LOOK OUT!" I yelled raising my tomahawk. He turned around in time to grab its wrists to keep it back "DUDE HIT IT! HIT IT NOW!" he yelled "I can't it's moving around too much!"I yelled as the creep struggled on top of Ian to get its jaws on him.

If I swung now I could miss, it could deflect and get Ian, if I decapitated it the head would fall and bite Ian on the face. Suddenly here was a BANG! And I looked up to see a man with a large revolver standing on the other side of some wire "you two okay?" he asked "now I am."Ian said getting up and stomping the creeper once to be sure it was dead. "You're clean? No bites or scratches?" the man asked pointing his gun at Ian, I drew my pistol and shakily aimed it at the man giving the impression of fear or weakness.

"I'm clean, not a scratch on me." Ian said "alright, you two look like shit, you need food or anything?" he asked "yeah, if you can spare." I replied cautiously "come with me, my camps just over here." He said pointing behind him and walking. Ian and I slipped through the wire fencing and followed the man "my name's Harold by the way." He said over his shoulder "I'm Carl, this is Ian." I said. We walked for awhile talking, Harold was obviously trying to get a sense of who we were, so we just answered his questions and talked a little.

After a few minutes we arrived at a large clearing, an RV was parked in the center, surrounding it were numerous tents and tarps. There were dozens of people it sight, all of them were simply walking around, some carried firewood to small campfires, others sat and talked with each other, and about ten stood guard with a few small rifles. Ian and I looked around in amazement, this group seemed to be casual, relaxed, like the creepers didn't exist. "Welcome to the clearing." Harold said "wow, this is incredible." Ian said "yeah, it is. We've worked hard, but it's all been worth it." Harold replied "so now you're gonna take us to your leader right? Let him judge us." I asked cautiously "nope, no need. We pick up strays every now and then, like Tori over there," Harold said pointing at a slender brown haired girl with a swimmer's tan at a campfire. ", and Lenny and Judith there we're used to it." He said pointing at an older couple sitting in some chairs.

"You can bunk with them in the RV, it's not spacious, but it's safe." Harold said as we walked to the camp, a few people stopped to look but casually went back to work after a few seconds "we'll take your things to the RV." Said one woman in a purple hoodie and black jeans "thank you." Ian said handing her his pack "we'll take yours too if you like." another woman said to me extending her hands, I cautiously gave her my pack.

She still stood with her arms out, expecting more "what?" I asked "your axe-" "stays with me." I interrupted "what he means is, he'd feel safer with it." Ian said the woman nodded and walked to the RV. "Make yourselves at home." Harold said before walking away "Carl, you've got to chill a bit man." Ian said "no, these people need to stress a bit more." I replied before walking to an empty chair next to the RV.

A few people who walked past said hello to me, I simply nodded and cracked a very small smile. As night began to grow nearer I set up a small campfire and gathered up some tinder, without any prompting Tori and the older couple had pulled up some chairs along with Ian. "So, where are you all from?" Lenny asked "I'm from Santa' Lena." Ian said "same." I said "Orinda." Tori said. "Well, we're from the valley."Judith said there was a pause in the conversation for a few minutes "can either of you play guitar?" Lenny asked "I can." Ian replied "great, I'll be right back." Lenny said getting up and going through the RV; a minute later he came out holding an acoustic guitar.

He handed Ian the guitar and sat down "can you play a simple tune, like an old western tune?" he asked "sure." Ian replied as he started to play. After a minute Lenny started to sing.

"We met in the springtime when blossoms unfold  
The pastures were green and the meadows were gold  
Our love was in flower as summer grew on  
Her love like the leaves now has withered and gone.

The roses have faded, there's frost at my door  
The birds in the morning don't sing any-more  
The grass in the valley is starting to die  
And out in the darkness the whippoorwills cry.

A-lone and forsaken by fate and by man  
Oh, lord, if you hear me please hold to my hand  
Oh, please under-stand.

Oh, where has she gone to, oh, where can she be  
She may have forsaken some other like me  
She promised to honor, to love and obey  
Each vow was a plaything that she threw away.

The darkness is falling, the sky has turned gray  
A hound in the distance is starting to bay  
I wonder, I wonder - what she's thinking of  
Forsaken, forgotten - without any love.

A-lone and forsaken by fate and by man  
Oh, lord, if you hear me please hold to my hand  
Oh, please under-stand."

He sang in an old rusty voice. Ian kept playing for a few seconds after Lenny had stopped singing. "So where'd you learn to sing?" Ian asked "used to be a country singer in my youth, my career never quite took off though." Lenny replied.

Tori shivered in the cold, she hugged her knees to her chest and stared at the fire. "here." I said taking off my jacket and handing it to her "thanks." she said coyly smiling, I didn't reply. "So were you in a group before?" Tori asked "yeah, for a long while. A couple weeks ago we all got separated, I'm still not sure if our friends are still out there or not." Ian said "I'm sorry to hear that dear." Judith said.

After an hour or so I decided to get some sleep. I entered the RV and looked for a spot to sleep, the two beds were taken, so I grabbed a pillow to put behind my head and slept at the table; then I slowly drifted to sleep, tomahawk in hand.

**The next morning**

I woke up at about 6 am the next morning and got up and out of the RV. I climbed the ladder on the back and sat on the roof of the RV with my blanket over my shoulders and my tomahawk on my belt. The sun was slowly rising, unlike the village the clearing didn't light up as fast as the tall trees blocked the sun's rays. I watched the edges o the clearing, scanning the brush and wires for creeps. I looked around camp and saw four armed people walking the perimeter, it seemed like these people were completely unaware of the danger the creepers posed to them.

A few hours passed and it grew light enough that people began to stir. People began to leave their tents, they all seemed too calm to me. A few stood around drinking coffee and talking, others started campfires and cooked breakfast, while others still simply stood and relaxed.

I felt nervous; with everyone this calm an attack would be easy, by creeps or people. More people needed weapons, they needed to be alert, not distracted by things like breakfast or coffee. The only thing that kept this group safe was its sheer numbers; if it weren't for that they'd be easy to take down…

**Meanwhile at the swamp village**

We all sat in a crowd together; the men aimed their weapons at us aggressively. "If your leader faces me you may all go free, now, where is he? Or she." A man in riot gear said "it is me." Grandpa said standing up "I will face you." "Great, give the old man the weapons of his choice." The man ordered "Grandpa no!" I said standing "SIT DOWN BOY!" the riot geared man yelled "James, don't, this is my fight." Maurice said standing "what the fuck is this?" one of the armed men said "I don't care, I'll fight em' both." Their leader said.

"Clear the center of this village, it'll be the arena, I'll fight Tyrone over here first." He said "the names Maurice." Our leader said as he was handed a hammer "I don't give a flying fuck." The riot geared man said unsheathing a machete and being handed a SWAT shield. We were herded away from the center of the village by the armed men; I grabbed Noelle's hand so we wouldn't get separated. "Alright, let's get started." The man said stepping towards Maurice and raising his machete.


	17. Chapter 15

The man in riot gear walked forward and raised his machete, Maurice went to block it and was swiftly struck in the side by the man's shield I was stunned by his quickness with such a large shield and riot gear on. Maurice backpedaled and coughed before trying to swing at the man's head. He ducked under the swing and pushed Maurice with his shield again. "He's toying with him." Noelle said in shock "we need to escape." I said

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I could hear the sounds of the fight, Maurice grunting, the plastic sound of the shield smacking him, and his yells of pain. Rosana worked her way to us, so did Gabby and Tyler; we all looked at each other for a second before Rosana spoke "let's get our weapons and run or swim or canoe out of here." She said 'yeah, but we have to get past the armed guards." Tyler said "and save Grandpa-" I began before I heard a loud "YEEAGHH!" from the armed guards. "Maurice is dead." Gabby reported after glancing over…

I stepped forward with my club in hand "so old man, think you stand a chance?" the young man asked removing his machete from Maurice's neck "yes." I replied. His goons all made sounds of laughter and surprise "confident aren't you old fart?" the man questioned "no, reasonable." I replied drawing my knife.

He moved towards me and made a short charge with his shield; I dodged it by sidestepping and swiftly bringing my club down on to his back. My strike simply deflected off the back-plate of his armor "nice shot oldie." The man said twirling around and smacking me with the face of his shield, I was pushed to my right. I rolled to avoid stumbling and quickly placed my feet on the ground, he was already moving in for another attack with the edge of his shield. I used my club to deflect the downward strike and used my knife to slash his bicep.

Sadly his sleeve was made of Kevlar and I only sliced the upper layer "again, nice try Gramps." He said before bringing the shield across hitting me back a foot or two. I got to my feet as fast as I could and swung my club as him; he calmly brought his shield up and deflected my blow before kicking me backwards again. This time he thrust with his machete and cut my left forearm, making me drop my knife.

I sprung up and grabbed him by the waist pushing him back. He brought his knee up as we fell and struck me in the gut; I rolled to the side and shakily got to my feet. He was already up and ready. He kicked me in the shin and hit me in the back with the face of his shield pushing me into the ground…

"Caleb don't watch." I said keeping him focused as Rosana and Tyler took out the men guarding the canoes silently. "Let's go." Gabby said helping me get the struggling Caleb onto a canoe "he's my only family left!" he pleaded "he's giving us what we need, time. Let's not waste it!" Rosana said as we all pushed the canoes into the water and hurried away…

**Four hours later in the clearing**

I sat on a tree branch with my fixed blade knife ready, I saw two creeps walking below me clumsily; I pulled my tomahawk from my belt and got ready to jump down. I dropped ten feet lodging my knife into one's head and burying my tomahawk into the other's head "nice." said Ian "thanks." I said "dude, that was like watching art." He said climbing down the tree slowly. "It was nothing, really." I said humbly "Carl, you're too fucking modest." He said patting me on the shoulder.

We began to walk back to the clearing, this morning at a group meeting held to welcome us I had taken the job of clearing the fences of creepers or as these people called them no-brainers. It was a good job for me, I was able to take out anger on the creeps, and I could get away from other people for extended time.

Now though it was time to get some lunch, I hadn't eaten much at breakfast and neither had Ian. We worked our way through the wire fences and walked into camp "hello." Said someone "hi." Ian replied "how'd it go?" Harold asked walking up "great, this guy's an artist when it comes to killing creeps." Ian said "how so?" Harold asked nervously "I've never seen quicker or quieter kills from anyone, he's like a ghost or some shit." Ian said "impressive." Harold commented passing me some bleach and alcohol to clean my weapons.

I sat by the RV and began to clean my weapons with a rag set aside to do so. "Hello Carl, how'd it go?" Judith asked "good, took out a few creepers." I said "well I just want to thank you for making this place safer." She said "it's no problem, really." I said. "Hey Carl?" Tori asked "what?" I questioned "could you teach me to kill those things?" "The creeps? Yeah no problem, actually can I ask you a favor?" I asked "sure." She said "go around camp and find other people who don't know how to fight the creeps. I'll teach all'a you later today." I said "okay." she said somewhat disappointed. I went to set up something important.

**Four hours later**

Tori had gathered a group of about twenty people ranging from teenagers as young as 13 to elderly people as old as their late fifties and early sixties. "So the first thing I'm going to teach you is the best weapon you'll ever have. I need four volunteers, I promise you'll not be harmed." I said. Four teenage guys all walked forward "alright you four walk like creepers towards me when I tell you to." I said "got it." One of them said.

"Go."I commanded, they all stumbled towards me, after they took two steps I turned around and walked away. Some people laughed others frowned "we want to learn to fight!" someone yelled "yeah, but before you learn to fight you need to know when to retreat." I said "never start a fight without an escape plan, otherwise you're as good as bit." A few people nodded ad muttered in agreement.

"Now I'll teach you some basics, follow me." I said walking towards the edge of the clearing. I led them a ways into the woods before we came to a clearing about fifty feet by forty-five feet. It has fenced in by five lengths of wire, inside that was a square of wire fence twenty feet by twenty feet. "Is it done Ian?" I asked as I walked up "yeah." He said nodding, inside the smaller square were three creepers, all three were hooded like a falcon and tied to a fencepost.

I hopped inside the square fence and used my knife to cut one creeps rope. The hooded creep fell on the ground and clumsily got to its feet before blindly stumbling around. "they're a lot slower than us, but don't let that fool you, they're faster than you think I said circling the creep while avoiding the two hooded and bound ones. "A lot of them have been decaying for awhile and their fingers are like claws, so avoid their grip." I said pushing the creep back a little.

"If they get their hands on you the next thing they'll try is to pull you to their mouth, get a bite in." I said ducking under the creep's blind grab for me. "Remember they're dead, they aren't growin' new cells so they get weaker over time, so chances are you're stronger and faster. Not to mention smarter too." I said again pushing the creep back into the wire.

"One thing they've got on us is they don't tire ever, not sure why but they don't. and they won't die from a strike to the heart, lungs, stomach, liver, kidney, and their head will still bite even if it's off the body." I explained pushing the creep into the fence again "to completely kill them you've got to destroy the brain, specifically the lower and back portions of the brain. Then it's dead for good." I said pulling the hood off the creep and pushing it backwards.

The creep growled and barred its teeth as it moved forward. I drew my knife and tomahawk before side-stepping the creeper "a good tactic for one on one is to trip them, then strike." I said swiping its feet and smashing its head with my tomahawks hammer side. "What about a group of em'?" someone asked 'it helps to have a partner or group backing you, but I've got a few tricks." I said.

"Ian release the other two." I said, he cut the rope with his machete and yanked the hoods off their heads before backing off. The creeps instantly moved towards me arms reaching at me. I ducked behind them and kicked them in the back of the knees to knock them to the ground face down. Then I stuck my knife in one's head and stomped the others head three times crushing it. "try and get them on the ground, they have a lot of trouble getting up and that'll give you time to smash their heads in." I said.

"But not all of us are strong enough to kick heads in like you." Someone said "actually, you are. Remember they're rotting; you'll be able to with a few good kicks typically with relatively older creeps. Fresh ones are a different story though, you'll need a weapon for them." I said as I hopped out of the arena. "In a few days I'll have some more creeps in here and a few of you can try." I said as I started to clean my weapons.

"remember if you use your weapon for something else, like hunting or something, you've got to clean it with bleach and alcohol, the two together will do a damn good job cleaning off whatever these things got." Ian said passing me some supplies. "Head back to camp and I'll be right there." I said to everyone, they all walked back to camp in a large group.

"So Carl, why are you so social all of a sudden?" Ian asked "this will help them defend themselves, if creeps had attacked before we'd got here they'd be helpless." I said. "This isn't our group, you know that." He whispered "yeah, I know. I'm teaching them to fight creeps. Not people, I'm gaining trust here Ian." I whispered back "be careful man, don't get too involved." He said.

We walked back to camp and saw a crowd by the RV "wonder what's going on." Ian said as we approached. "hey guys, we got some new people, why don't you meet em'." Harold said "cool." Ian said as we moved through the crowd. As we saw the newcomers I was shocked, if they were here something had happened. But what, why were they here?


	18. Chapter 16

They were here. Noelle, Caleb, Rosana, Tyler, Gabby, they were here! Something must have happened at the swamp camp. I would have to talk to them later, but right now I'd have to handle this.

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I was completely caught off guard "Noelle!" I said hugging her "follow my lead." I whispered "Ian!" Rosana exclaimed running to him and kissing him. "We thought we'd never see you all again, when we got separated a few weeks ago we thought you were dead!" I said "we thought you and Ian were dead too. Thank whatever you guys are okay." she said "Caleb, where's Gramps?" I asked "he-he's dead, someone found us, a group, gramps fought their leader to give us a shot to get away." He said almost crying.

"We'll give you all time to catch up." Harold said as he made the crowd disperse. "Tell me what really happened." I whispered to Caleb "he told the truth." Rosana whispered "we were at camp and then these guys came outa nowhere, their leader fought Maurice and killed him, then Gramps fought him, we escaped during the fight." Gabby explained.

"So, how do we tell these people he's a threat?" I asked "be straightforward. Tell them all we know and let them deal with it." Caleb said. I pulled Noelle aside quickly "d-did you grab any of Amrita's old stuff?" I asked "um, no I'm sorry Carl, we didn't have-" she started "it's alright, I think I need to start moving on anyways." I said.

"Guys, should we tell more than we have?" Gabby asked "what'd you mean?" Noelle asked "they could deduce we're from here, and figure out where we're really from." Gabby replied "I'm with Gabby. They know enough to get ready for an attack." Rosana said "me too, if they're not worried then they're not thinking right." I said. "Carl, we need to tell them all we know, make sure they're ready." Noelle said "Noelle, these people don't even have a leader, or group of leaders. They just sit around here from what I can tell and all work on their own little projects. They're disorganized. Even if we told them they'd get nothing done." I said.

Noelle opened her mouth to speak before stopping herself and walking away with Caleb "Rosana, can you keep an eye on them?" I asked "sure." She replied. I decided to stand watch, the chair on top of the RV was empty and I felt that I needed to keep watch since these people wouldn't. I sat with my pistol in its holster ready to shoot; I kept my watch for a few hours before I was interrupted. "Hey Carl." Tori said "hey Tori." I replied "so, are you free?" she asked "no, I got homework to do." I joked "oh, well-" she began "joking, course' I'm free. Who isn't now?" I asked climbing down the ladder. "So, I was wondering if you'd like to hang out sometime?" she asked "sure, I guess. Are you sure now's the time? There are dead cannibals walking around, hostile survivors, and we scavenge and hut for supplies. Aren't dates a bit old-style now?" I asked jokingly.

"No. I think it'd be nice; it'd be a little nostalgic. Remind us of the god times." She said "sure. When do you want to hang out?" I asked "how about now? No time like the present. Besides, these are probably the closing years of our lives; let's enjoy them." Tori said "a bit cynical of a outlook to have, but I don't disagree with you." I said. We started to walk together, I wasn't sure where we were going but I didn't really care.

"What do you want to do?" Tori asked "I don't know, it's not like we can go to a restaurant or a movie. And we can't take food for a picnic, it'd cut into the food supplies." I said "yeah, maybe we could just go for a walk?" she asked "I guess, but we'd either have to stay in the clearing or take weapons. And nothing kills the mood like a shotgun or a crowbar." I said "I think we could just stay in the clearing, we can still have some privacy." She said grabbing my arm with her thin hands.

I kept my right hand free so if I had too I could draw my pistol to take down a creeper. I let her lead the way; she led me to a corner of the clearing with a few tents blocking most of the camps view from ground level. We sat down and she leaned her head on my shoulder. "So, I still don't know much about you Tori." I said "well, I had a pretty boring life. Let's see, I was a straight A student, swam, I was on the diving team, and taking AP US history, AP English, AP Bio, and physics." She said.

"What about outside school?" I asked "well, honestly I didn't do too much, I never had the time." She said "I understand, I had time, but I never got to really use much of it for myself." I said. "Really?" Tori asked "yeah, my mom wasn't the most stable person. And I had some trouble dealing with her; she rarely made it clear what she wanted, and she never really saw that. The woman never admitted she was wrong, ever. I never once heard her say she was wrong, and damnit she was plenty." I said "what about your dad?" Tori asked "he was a more stable person by far, he wasn't perfect but he'd admit fault. I just felt he genuinely cared more for me than for what I did." I said.

"Sorry for bringing up family." I apologized "no, don't worry. Sometimes you've got to tell someone stuff like that." She said "yeah well, I sorta think that that shit shouldn't-doesn't matter anymore. It's irrelevant." I said. Tori grabbed my hand with both of hers before speaking "I think it does." She said "I guess it depends on the person." I said "yeah, guess it does." She said.

We sat for a few minutes in silence. She took my face with one hand; she leaned in and went to kiss me. The instant her lips touched mine I pulled back "I-I can't." I muttered getting up and hurrying away. I didn't look back to see her reaction, i just hurried away. I walked past the wire fencing and climbed up into a tree. "Please, I need to talk to you, please." I begged "what is it?" Amrita asked "I don't know what to do. This girl Tori really likes me, and I like her back, but it's been a week, one fucking week since you died. It just feels too soon. What do I do?" I asked.

"Carl, the world is different. You can't hang up on the past. You need to move on eventually. You said it yourself." She said "but you were murdered. A week ago you were stabbed and then a week later I'm almost with some new girl, doesn't that seem wrong, just too soon?" I asked "Carl, I love you. And I want you to live, not just survive. You have to be able to move on, like when Nathan died. Like when Andrea died. Or when we were kicked out of the town, like all those times you persevered when others said you'd fail, or you were wrong. That's what you need to do now." She said "but I had you there. You helped me through this, you kept me sane, kept me human." I said.

"And our friends will do that for you, Tori will do that for you. You have people ready to help you, you'll survive." Amrita said "but Amrita, I-" I started before looking down and seeing Noelle standing below "Carl, are you alright?" she nervously asked "I-no. no I'm not." I said. She climbed up the tree and sat on the branch with me "can you tell me about it?" she asked "it'll sound crazy." I said "the whole world's crazy." Noelle said "I-I talk to Amrita, or at least my mind's impression of her. If I have a problem I can talk to her, and she tries to help me." I explained.

"Seems reasonable, loss will do that, I had horrible nightmares of my family members about two weeks in." she said "but I see her, talk to her, and I'm awake. Back at the other camp I would talk to her at the pond, I don't know why. I'm losing it." I said "Carl, we're all under stress. Everyone's crazy in some way. I can sleep sitting up. Caleb's going through some shit right now. Tyler and Gabby immediately attached to each other from what I heard. And Ian and Rosana sleep with their eyes open, literally. We're all crazy" Noelle said "and I see dead people." I said.

"Listen Carl, you have trouble with loss, that's okay. Better that than not caring if anyone dies. It's better to have a heart of glass than none at all." She said putting a hand on my shoulder. I couldn't think of any way to respond other than to nod in silence "Carl, do you want to talk to me? If it's okay, I don't want to intrude or anything, but if you need to talk to someone, I'm here." She said before climbing down.

I sat in the tree for an hour, alone, I just needed some space. I was relatively hidden, some branches with the leaves on blocked most of me from view. I was looking at the ground when below I heard some movement and saw a person creeping through the undergrowth. I drew my pistol and aimed at their head before hearing more rustling, and more. I looked around and saw about two dozen people, armed sneaking through the forest towards camp. I stayed perfectly still, not wanting to expose myself.

After what seemed like an eternity the men passed and I slowly climbed down from my hiding place and stealthily followed them from a distance. I saw them spread out to surround the clearing, the people with rifles spread out equally around the perimeter of the clearing. I couldn't find a way in without being seen, I was stuck out here with only my pistol; it was stupid for me to have left my main weapons behind. My friends were in danger and I was helpless to do anything about it!


	19. Chapter 17

There was a large group of armed people surrounding the clearing, my friends were unaware of their presence, and I was stuck hiding in the undergrowth without my tomahawk or any supplies.

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I stayed as still as possible, watching the strangers nervously. I quickly and silently moved to new cover, watching the strangers as I did. I saw a few of the men with rifles taking careful aim at people in camp and knew I needed to act fast. I looked around and saw some rocks nearby I could hid behind, then I took aim at one of the rifle bearing men and fired twice dropping him with two shots, one to the shoulder and another to the base of the neck.

I quickly rolled behind the rocks as another man noticed the one I shot go down and was about to alert the others before I shot him in the head once. I crawled through the brush towards camp and passed under some wires and low lying plants. I entered camp behind a tent and walked to my friends by the RV. "Get your weapons ready, discreetly." I said "they're here." Caleb said scowling "Caleb, keep calm. We need to be reasonable." Noelle said taking his hand.

"I'll warn these people quietly, just be ready when I say so." I ordered moving to find everyone who I knew could use a weapon. I then went to find Tori, I went to the RV and found her sitting at the table, she looked like she had cried. "Tori, there's about to be an attack." I said, she didn't respond "Tori, can you use a gun?" I asked, she still didn't answer. "Tori I'm sorry, please, believe me I am. These people need you right now, I need you right now." I pleaded.

"Do you need me? Or do you just need another gun?" she asked "I need you to help me, to help me fight off people who would easily kill all of us. Please Tori, I'm begging you." I said holding out a pistol. She glared at me for a moment before extending her hand and taking the gun "you've got fifteen shots; there are some extra mags in Noelle's bag. Be careful." I said "whatever." Tori said.

I grabbed my tomahawk and grabbed to mags for my pistol. I walked outside and sat by a table, psyching myself up for the fight. It was people like these guys who killed Amrita, these guys killed Gramps, and they are taking advantage of the people who were almost not surviving, almost living.

"Carl, what's our actual strategy?" Caleb asked walking up to me "we fight the hostiles off, maybe we can wipe them out." I said "what about the man who killed Grandpa?" he asked coldly "kill him, point him out and I'll try to catch him-" I started "I want to be the one to do it. I have to, it's- it's just something I need to do." He said. "alright, and if you need me I'll back you, alright." I said extending a hand. He reached out and took it and clasped it for only a second before releasing my hand and walking away.

"What's wrong with you?" I heard Ian ask loudly "Ian, come here." Rosana said as I turned and saw them walking towards me. "Carl, tell Ian these aren't our people, we should just bail." Rosana demanded "I'm sorry, but Rosana these people will be wiped out if we don't help. We need to stay human." I said "you're just doing this cause of what's-her-name you idiot." She said "no, I'm not. I'm doing this for- I'm doing this and that's all that matters." I said. Rosana looked at both of us in exasperation "you two are so fucking stupid." She said before walking away.

I walked over to talk to Noelle, I wanted to make sure my friends were ready for this; we were about to fight with these people, fight them to the death. My friends and I would be ready to do the same. Noelle saw me and made eye contact with me just before we heard a shot ring out and we each dove for cover. Suddenly gunshots began to rain at camp, tents were torn apart and glass was shattered. I fired my pistol at the muzzle flash in the trees and hear a few screams of pain.

Noelle fired her rifle and one man fell forward into the clearing "we need to get better cover!" Noelle yelled "under the RV." I replied just loud enough to be heard. We hurried and rolled under the RV before shooting out from our new cover. I looked out and saw Caleb in cover behind a flipped table with Ian and Rosana. I looked for Gabby and Tyler but didn't see them. I saw a group of men charge into camp with close quarter's weapons. A few people went to try and stop them but the attackers made quick work of them.

These assholes just gave up their biggest advantage against me, now their gunners couldn't shoot at me with these idiots in their line of fire, now they were in where I had the advantage. I holstered my pistol and unsheathed my knife. As I rolled out from under the RV I readied my tomahawk, one attacker saw me and swung a baseball bat at my head, I ducked under his swing and stabbed him in the temple before noticing another attacker with a rifle taking aim at me. Quickly I pulled the man I just stabbed in front of me and blocked three shots with his body, then Caleb charged the man, burying a tomahawk in his face as the man turned and screamed.

Caleb and I began to take out the attackers in camp with the help of a few others who could hold their own. Rosana swung a crowbar and broke a man's jaw before hitting him again; Ian sliced a man's throat before stabbing another through the chest with his machete. Caleb and I were looking for the man in riot gear, Caleb deserved revenge. More attackers charged in, and Caleb, Rosana, and I ran and began taking them down. Ian and Tyler were fighting the ones who got past us, and Noelle, Gabby, and the rest were defending the kids and those who couldn't fight.

I was running on serious adrenaline, I was just fighting. I didn't care who they were, how tough they looked, I just did my best to keep them from getting past me. One ran past me while I was fighting another and I quickly struck out with my tomahawk, hooking him with the beard or the head in the throat and pulling him back. He collided with the man I was fighting, they tumbled to the ground. The man pushed the dead body off him in time for me to smash his face with my tomahawk. Blood splattered everywhere, bones crunched and brains squished.

Suddenly I heard screams of terror and turned to see Tori and Noelle fighting a large bald man with a machete and hammer. The girls weren't doing well, this man easily was twice my size and seemed to be much more skilled than the two of them. "Noelle!" Caleb yelled rushing to help.

Tori tried to swing her baseball bat at the man but he blocked it with his hammer, then he pushed her aside before swinging his hammer once and hitting her in the side of the head. As the hammer hit her she jumped a little, like when you are at the beach wading into the ocean, and a wave hits you just a little harder than you were expecting and your feet leave the sand for just a moment or two. When she landed she collapsed on the ground and lay there motionless. "NO!" I yelled following Caleb to attack the man.

"You asshole!" Noelle yelled as she swung her crowbar at the man, but midswing he flicked his machete and slashed her left wrist causing her to drop her crowbar and scream with agony. Now Caleb and I arrived and I leapt at the man. Caleb jumped and elbowed him in the back of the head at the same time and the man fell to the ground.

Caleb and I each began to beat the man with our tomahawks violently, "AAAGGHHHHHAAAAAEEEAA!" the man screamed once before Caleb brought the spike on the back of his tomahawk down on his head. I used the hammer on the back of my tomahawk and smashed in his ribs, each broke with a sickening crrrrrcckkkkksshhh! sound. "Guys I need you back up here now!" Rosana yelled "stay with her." I ordered Caleb before I began to run back to Rosana, passing Ian and Tyler who were fighting off a few attackers. Rosana was alternating between swinging her crowbar like a mace, giving it momentum so no one could block it and swinging it quickly and precisely like a dueling sword.

I saw one man raise a rifle to shoot her and threw my tomahawk at the man, lodging it in his collarbone. I ran to retrieve it before someone else grabbed it. One of the attackers must have seen me going after my tomahawk and ran to intercept me, he swung baseball bat at me. I dove over it and rolled on the ground once, then I turned and stabbed him with my knife before he could swing again.

I reached the man who had my tomahawk in his collarbone and I removed it before bringing it down on his head. "they're pulling back!" Ian yelled I looked to see if he was right and saw the attackers running away, one passed me and I hit him with my tomahawk as he ran by. I went to chase them but my feet felt heavy and I could only manage a jog.

My body's adrenaline was wearing off and now I was tiring. "Carl, they've left. Besides, we need you here right now." Rosana said hurrying over to Noelle. I followed her, as I did I saw the bodies of the people who had been killed, most where the outsiders, but some were ours. There were at least five dead children, I turned away and hurried to Noelle.

She was on the ground clutching her forearm an inch or two back from her wrist, her left hand was limp. She had tears running down her cheeks but made little sound. Blood was seeping through her fingers and her right hand was stained red with her own blood. "come on Noelle, let's see how bad this is." Ian said helping her up "it fucking hurts." She said "you're losing blood, we need to stop that bleeding now." A woman said pushing through a few people crowded around with a first aid kit.

"Show me your arm darling." The woman said, Noelle extended her arm shakily and slowly before releasing her grip on it. Many people gasped, Caleb lost his balance for a moment, Rosana's eyes widened and she grew a little pale. Gabby's knees gave out and Tyler quickly caught her. I steadied myself putting a hand on a nearby chair. Her ulna was cut at the wound, and her radius was cut half its width. The cut was relatively smooth except for the muscles and blood vesicles. The frayed strands of muscle were exposed and the white of her bone could be seen.

"It's that bad." She commented groggily not looking at her arm "l-look for yourself." Ian managed to say "I'd p-prefer not t-t-" she tried to get out before she passed out. "is she okay?" Caleb asked suddenly panicked "she just passed out, I'm doing my best to help her. Does anyone have a clean knife?" the woman asked "me." I replied quickly unsheathing my second knife and handing it to the woman. woman "pass me that rag." She said pointing at a rag on a nearby table "on it." Someone said handing it to her. "You help me hold her arm still." She ordered me "okay." I replied.

"You all might want to look away." She said, everyone looked away, I looked away "not you, you need to make sure her arm stays still, and I need your shirt now." The woman ordered. I quickly took off my shirt and handed it to her, she put it under Noelle's arm before taking the rag and knife in her hands. "hold her steady." She said as she started cutting.

She tied the sleeves of my shirt about three to four finger lengths above the wound, as she tightened the sleeves Noelle tried to jerk her arm in pain a gave a small gasping sound, I held her down and did my best to avoid looking at the wound. Then the woman started cutting Noelle screamed in agony, the sound was horrifying "AAAAGGHHHAAAAAAAAIIIIIIEEEEE IEIEIIEAAGHHGHAAA!" I forced myself to hold her down as she struggled "shh, shh. This'll be done before you know it." I said doing my best to calm her down. "you're hurting her!" Caleb yelled "get him back!" the woman ordered.

"Keep her steady damnit." The woman said blowing her black hair out of her face quickly as she continued to cut. Then suddenly the woman finished cutting through the remainder of Noelle's wrist and applied topical antibiotics, after that she quickly put the rag directly on the now open wound. "Hold that rag there." She ordered, I applied pressure on the rag. The woman then went into her medical bag and pulled out gauze and medical tape. "when I tell you to move." She said, I nodded in acknowledgement.

"now." She calmly said as I moved, the woman discarded the rag and quickly began to wrap Noelle's wound with the gauze, then she used the medical tape the hold the wrap in place. "Help me get her into the RV." She commanded "got it." I said as I helped her lift Noelle up and carry her into the RV.

"So what'd you do before all of this?" I asked "army medic." She replied as we opened the door and walked inside. We gently set Noelle down on the bed, I pulled the one chair inside over and sat down. "I don't need you here." The woman said as she began to take Noelle's temperature "I'm her friend I should-" "definitely not be here, go check on that boy, make sure he doesn't do anything stupid." The woman interrupted. "alright." I sighed before getting up and leaving.

I saw Gabby and Tyler sitting with Caleb and knew I needed to do something else. I walked over to Tori's body and knelt beside her. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I led you on and that I turned you down." I closed my eyes "they won't get away with this, I promise." I said. I got up and went to talk with Ian and Rosana. I found Ian by a car watching the woods "sup dude." I said "yeah, so are you alright?" he asked "yeah, why wouldn't I be?" I asked "Noelle's whole thing going on, I just have to check in man. Everyone else is worried about Caleb cause' he's her boyfriend, but you've known her longer, you two were pretty close." He said "I'm fine; I can handle shit like this alright. She's in good care and we just need to let that woman work." I said

"Hey Carl! Found something!" I heard Rosana yell "I'm good here, go check it out." Ian said I hurried and ran to Rosana who was by the RV with someone else on the ground "tell me who sent you!" she demanded before punching him "whoa whoa whoa!" I said grabbing he fist before she hit the man again "this guy attacked us! I want to know who sent him and I want to know where that fucker is!" she said.

"You won't get info like that." I whispered "fine, do it your way." She whispered back. Rosana took a few steps back and I stepped forward "listen, I'm sorry about my friend, she's on edge right now, hell I am too. But a little while ago your people attacked my people, why?" I asked the man stayed quiet and looked me in the eyes angrily. I quickly looked for something to exploit and saw a gash on his leg most likely from a crowbar or machete. I turned around and whispered to Rosana "exploit that wound on his leg, good cop bad cop." "Got it, I'll let you know when you're on." She said walking up to the man.

"that leg looks pretty bad." Rosana said before kicking his leg wound making him scream loudly. I saw Harold walking up and hurried to intercept him, he could ruin this easily. "what the hell are you two doing?" he asked "that's one of the attackers, we're finding out all we can from him, however we can. Now please let us do this, see to your people." I said "I'm not their leader we don't have one-" "then you're their leader now, you take care of your people and I'll deal with mine." I said.

He looked at me for a few seconds before walking away. I hurried back to the interrogation, Rosana had grabbed some salt from a nearby table and was about to throw it in his wound when I stopped her "hey, let's dial it back, I'll handle this for a while." I said looking her in the eyes to tell her "good job" and she nodded. "listen, the sooner you tell us what we want the sooner I can get our medic to help with that leg and my friend stops trying to make you cry." I said. "fuck off." He said "listen dude, that wound should have been treated immediately, I can see your femur. That's going to get infected and when it does we'll be forced to help you." The man grinned "but we aren't forced to make our medical care pleasant, you did attack us, and you didn't tell us what we wanted. I'll make sure you get the most painful medical care." "Yeah right, it's just a leg wound, I'll be fine." He said "really, have you looked at this thing, dude your leg may have to come off, our medic may not be able to save it. You'd be awake for that amputation dude." I said.

The man looked a little less sure of himself now, his pupils were large and he was sweating. "tell us where the man with riot gear is." I demanded drawing my knife and running the dull side through his wound. The man screamed in agony, he yelped, he whined. "UUGGNNHH-STOP! PLEEAAASHHAASSSE!" he cried "TELL ME!" I yelled "OKAY! OKAY!" he screamed. "Carl, everyone's watching." Rosana said "don't care." I said before turning to the prisoner "tell me what you know." I said.


	20. Chapter 18

I sat on the balcony with my friends, we lived the high life. My dad was a Regent, whatever the hell that was, he worked for the man in armor, the man who within four months had built a new kingdom from the ashes of the old world. My family and close friends enjoyed a life of surprising luxury in a world going downhill. "Daniyah, get me some soda." I commanded my servant, a girl of seventeen "yes madam." She said with sorrow "if you're fast you can slit it with me." I lied. Right now on this balcony I was "Queen of the Fucking World" I lived the high life.

The

Walking

Dead

"Tell me what you know." I said "he's got a man in Orinda." The man said "that place is overrun." I replied "not the hills, his man's got a mansion, and a militia, the man in armor just commandeers it and others when he's around." I grabbed a map and opened it "tell me where exactly." I demanded "I'm not stupid, I die if I tell." "You die if you don't tell. Talk." Rosana said. "There. Ridgetop street." He said pointing to the map. "Thanks. I'll see your leg is treated." I said before standing up and nodding to Rosana.

She quietly cut his throat and dragged the body out of sight. I walked over to Caleb and the others "when Noelle's better I've got the info we need to start tracking this guy in riot gear." I said laying the map on a table "how does this guy not know where he is he's one of his guys." Caleb said "no he's not; he belongs to a guy in the hills who is in the Orinda hills. The man in armor seems to have people in a few places controlling groups, he just borrows them while he's in town, get the idea?" I asked "he's playing Caesar." Tyler said.

"yeah." Rosana said walking up with a washcloth in her hands which was stained with blood. "We should go check this place out, then get to the leader in Orinda and get the armored guy's location." Gabby said "that's what I was getting at." I said "we got the bastard's street. We just need a car, Orinda's too far to walk." Rosana said pointing at the map. "well, I guess all that's left is to wait for Noelle to get better." Ian said. I turned around and saw him leaning against a car "didn't know you were there." I said "just caught the last bits there." He said

**Two days later…**

Caleb and I sat by the RV and waited "she's ready." Linda said, Linda was the woman who saved Noelle's life two days ago. We entered the RV and walked over to Noelle, her left stub was now wrapped and clean, she was sitting up trying to hold a book "hey babe let me get that." Caleb said "sweetie, I'm trying to learn to do this all with one hand, load a gun, hold a book, use a knife, all that stuff." She said lovingly. I stood back and let them have time "hey buddy. Come here." She said warmly "hey Noelle, how're you feeling?" I asked walking up to her "Well, I can still feel my hand, it's weird." She said

"That's a phantom limb, it's the nerves in your wrist sending fake signals to your brain or something." Linda said "thanks Lin'." Noelle said "she's been very positive, barely complained for the past two days." Linda commented. Noelle began trying to load a clip into her pistol and was pushing the clip with her stub "go easy on it, let that thing heal before you start messing with it, it's an open wound." Linda warned her "sorry. I'm just getting restless is all." Noelle replied letting me take the pistol and clip.

"So when would you say she can leave camp?" I asked "oh I'd give her another week at least. And she shouldn't go far even then." Linda said. Her demeanor had changed after the operation, during it she was unreachable, cold, tough, and strict, after she was relaxed, direct, and level-headed. "Alright, well then I'll let you and Caleb sit for a bit." I said putting a hand on Noelle's shoulder, she raised her hand and held mine for a second before letting me go and taking Caleb's hand.

As I left the RV I heard footsteps behind me and turned to see Linda "you want to attack the people who attacked us. I get what you're doing, you're waiting for her to be ready to move and try to drive you guys to Orinda." Linda said "nailed it." I said "that's a stupid fucking plan, if you need a driver I'll do it." She said "why?" I asked "Cause' they killed my niece, she was one of the kids killed two days ago. She was my last family. Her dad, my brother told me to keep her alive before he died, before all of this, I failed. I fucked up." She said.

"We're leaving tomorrow, we're taking the van at three in the morning, bring your own weapons and supplies, also tell Caleb and Noelle." I said "alright." She replied quietly. I hurried over to Ian and Rosana "guys tell, Gabby and Tyler we need to get the van loaded up discreetly and be ready to roll at three A.M. tomorrow morning. And guys, don't plan on coming back here." I said "on it." they replied before walking away. I went to my tent and grabbed an AK I'd claimed after the attack, I had seven thirty-five round magazines for it and it was matte black.

I also grabbed my knives and tomahawk. I strapped my big knife and tomahawk to a belt and put them in a duffel bag. I packed my AK and mags in the same bag; before I zipped it up I threw in some clothes and cans of food. I grabbed my pistol magazines and stuffed them in the bag and grabbed my water bottles and put two in before zipping it up and going outside of my tent and sitting with my hand on my pistol. I sat and waited, I was ready to leave.

**2:55 A.M.**

I leaned against the side of the van waiting for Noelle and Linda, they were the last two we were waiting for and the rest of us were eager to go. I saw two shadows move in my peripheral vision and I made one long cricket chirp, I was answered by two short high pitched chirps. It was Noelle and Linda, each had two large duffels and quietly set them in the van "alright, I'm going to put the van in neutral and you guys all push the van when Noelle signals you, we'll get out of the clearing to the road, then I'll kick the engine in and we'll go." Linda said getting in the driver's seat, Noelle sat in the passenger's seat, the rest of us got behind the van and waited for Noelle's chirp and pushed.

The van creaked forward slowly and after five minutes we got to the part of the fence that blocked a dirt road and Ian hurried with some wire cutters and cut one side of each wire, he signaled the all clear and we pushed for another five minutes before Noelle signaled us to get in. we all piled in through the back doors of the van and got comfortable, I made my way to the middle seat between Noelle and Linda, Noelle moved into the back and I scooted over into the passenger's seat. "So, you're riding shotgun with me, get ready to start navigating." Linda said "got it. Just tell me when." I said getting a flashlight out and readying the map.

**Five hours later…**

Finally the van came to a stop and I looked around, I could see creepers walking around "yeah, we're in Orinda." I said "Caleb, Rosana, let's clear these fuckers out." I said grabbing my tomahawk and getting out of the van. Rosana had her crowbar and Caleb had his tomahawk ready and the three of us moved out in a triangle. We began killing creeps, spreading out at a steady rate as we did. We made sure all our kills were as quiet as possible, after twenty minutes we cleared the area of enough creepers to give our group some breathing room.

We quickly ran back to the van and grabbed a spool of wire each; we each began tying wire to car bumpers, mail boxes, and street lamps. After another thirty minutes we had finished setting up our perimeter and walked calmly back to the van. "I'm going to get some sleep." I said "me too." Linda said leaning back in her seat. "It's okay, you two have been up longest, get rested, we'll move into the hills this afternoon." Ian said.

"In the meantime, Gabby, Tyler, come with me. We're gonna scrounge, I remember a few landmarks." Ian said, they nodded and armed up to go and scavenge. "Noelle, here's your 22. pistol, you, Caleb and I will hold down the fort." Rosana said grabbing her semi-auto shotgun. I lay down in the back of the van and shut my eyes…

I was sitting on my balcony dinking my soda, I watched the sunrise leisurely "talk to me Daniyah." I commanded "about what?" she asked slowly "about the sunrise." I said "it's a beautiful sunrise, I used to watch these with my mom and little brothers-" I interrupted her "you never told me you had brothers. Where are they now?" I asked. She didn't answer. "I asked you a question." I said "I don't want to talk about it." She said "doesn't matter, you're my servant. I ask you answer." I said.

Daniyah sighed "they're dead, the chompers got them." She said "what about your parents?" I asked "dead, mom got bit, your dad killed my-" "oh right! That guy was your dad! I forgot, my bad." I said. I sat for a minute looking over the walls; the houses on the other side were ruins, empty husks. "Get me another soda and some food." I commanded "yes madam." Daniyah said, broken…

**One month later...**

I looked through my binoculars at the compound and saw nothing new, there were about forty armed guards, eight servants by the looks of them, and five people unarmed being treated like kings and queens. "Pass me the binoculars." Linda said "sure. let's review what we know, there're three houses in that compound, and about three sheds and a greenhouse." I said as I handed her the binoculars. "got something new, a teenage girl, brown hair, green eyes, dressed pretty weird. Shorts, bikini top, flip-flops. She's sheltered." Linda said "alright, we know this guy's got a daughter he cares a lot about. We'll use that if we need to." I said.

"Carl, I think if you could just walk up to the door and go in I have an idea." She said "tell me." I said "you get close to the daughter, then when you meet the guy we're after spring your trap." She said "alright I could do that, just how do I get in?" I asked. There wasn't an answer "Linda?" I asked "gimme a sec' okay. There's a servant, middle-eastern girl, drop dead looker, she's slipping out. Let's catch her." She said handing me the binoculars.

We both got up and hurried to intercept the girl "what street?" I asked "Harris." Linda answered as I moved in. I went from cover to cover before I reached Harris street and saw the girl, she wore a brown tee shirt, black cargo pants and was barefoot "hey! Over here!" I said in a hushed tone "the girl saw me and was about to bolt before she saw Linda and she hurried over to us. "Who are you people?" the girl demanded pulling a knife on us "we're friendly, I swear." I said.

"Right, who are you?" she asked again holding the knife closer to my face. "I'm Carl, this is Linda, we're trying to take the guy in charge of that compound hostage." I said "nice story, kidnapping the Regent. Why?" she asked "we're after the man in body armor." I said "liar." She hissed putting the knife closer to me. "that's it." I said grabbing her wrist and pulling it aside, she then moved under my arm and rolled me over her back and onto the ground, and before Linda could get her she had her knife up to my throat.

"You two are B.S.-ing me, don't even pretend to not be." The girl said "calm it kid, we're being honest here, the Regent here is dying after we get the info we want." Linda said "he's mine, don't even-"the girl began "sure, you can do whatever you want with him, just let us get the info we need." Linda said. The girl released me and pushed me back "fine, I'll help you." She said "listen, we need help getting in there, and I've got an idea you won't like." I said.

"Spit it out." The girl demanded "we've been staking this place out a bit and we've seen the other servants, there's not too many. If I walk up with you like I caught you and I'm returning you that may get me in the door." I said "I don't like that, but it's a good plan. I'll do it." she said quickly. "Alright let's get ready, after you guys go I'll tell the others." Linda said…

I walked behind the girl with my pistol to her back. I had left my AK and tomahawk with Linda and I only had two of my knives on me. "Ready?" I asked "it don't matter." She said we turned onto Ridgetop and began walking, I saw a lookout call out our position and I calmed myself "I GOT SOMETHING THAT BELONGS TO YOU! I'M JUST HERE TO RETURN HER!" I yelled so they could hear me. "SET YOUR GUN DOWN WHEN THE GATE OPENS, WE'LL TALK WHEN WE GET OUT THERE!" one man yelled back as I got closer. "OKAY! I'M GOOD WITH THAT!" I answered. "Ready to see if this works?" I whispered "no." the girl replied.

Two large gates opened and eight men with assault rifles quickly moved out, a ninth man followed, he was armed with a revolver and swaggered out the gate. He wore a bowl hat and a suit jacket, in his left hand he held a cane, not that he needed it as he swung it around happily. His skin was paler than most by now, and he had a short well-kept beard. His eyes were beady and so dark brown that they almost looked like black marbles. "well, well, well, now what d' we 'ave ere' fellas? A boy returnin' our lil' runaway princess Jasmine." He said in a cockernonnie accent. "Yeah, all I'm doing." I said as I gently set my pistol on the ground. "ell' there's no need fo' that chap. Just fomalities ya' know." He said confidently gesturing for me to pick up my pistol.

I did so slowly and as I did I saw the man walk up to the girl and slap her across the face "well luv? It worth it, 'scape? The pain 'nd sufferin' ya'?" he asked hitting her again. "oh, you don' like when I do that lad? Don' be too neavous mate. I ain't gonna hit you." He said "you see, you just returned merchandise. Traded fo' in Seattle, brought all the fuckin' way here, hell I hear this girl's from the vally here in sunny California, kidnapped and traded. A broken girl mate. Well, 'lmost broken ya?" he said gesturing for two men to drag the girl inside. As they dragged her past he slapped her once more with the back of his hand.

"well don' just stand there pal, come on in, I'll get you a drink. What d' you prefer? Guinness or guava? Maybe a dab o' both?" he asked "guava." I said "good, I'll tell the Regent then, come on in boy." He said beckoning me in. I walked in as confidently as I could. I glanced around at the guard placements and saw all were armed heavily. "those guns ain't what keep ghouls out mate. It's the men you don' see in back, practicin' for them with spears an' what-not." The man said "my name's Lucius Sikes mate by the way." He said over his shoulder leading me into one of the large houses "my names Carl." I said introducing myself.

When we entered I was astounded at the houses interior, there were about eight couches, twenty chairs, dozens of tables, five crystal chandeliers and the floor was shiny tiles. "don' worry 'bout muckin' up the floor, lil' Arabian beauty 'll be clean'n that up later." He said "while you stay here you'll 'ave a servant for ya'self, I'll see you get a pretty las'." He said as I entered a bedroom "this room is mine?" I asked looking at the large king sized bed "ya, mus' be a million times what shit you're used to out in the cold hard world huh?" Lucius asked "a million's overstating it." I replied "well, I'll let ya' settle in mate. You'll be called when dinner's served." He said leaving my room and closing the door behind him.

I sat down at a desk and started to think about how I'd get past all the security and the wall secretly. I also didn't know if the regent was just going to have me killed at dinner, maybe poison me. I was happy my dad taught me how to do the count Dracula dinner. He taught me if you cut up your food and moved it around your plate people normally didn't notice you didn't eat, it was a trick that got me through family thanksgivings for years. I also didn't know who the Regent was. And I was worried that one of the guards recognized me, maybe they'd seen me at the clearing. Suddenly my door opened and a girl of about sixteen was pushed through. She looked panicked and scared, I turned and looked at her "hi-" I started "please, please don't-don't r-rape me." She stuttered "what? Rape you? Where'd you get that?" I asked "the other servants, they talk about people who've lived out there this whole time, they say you're animals, you eat other people when there's no food, and you rape women if they aren't willing!" she spat out quickly.

"What?" I asked once "we're not monsters, in fact we didn't bring back slavery and shit, we're human beings." I said calmly approaching the shaking blonde and helping her to a chair "as long as I'm the person you're assigned I'll make sure you're safe and don't work too hard, alright." I said stepping back. She looked at me a nodded, obviously still terrified "what's your name?" I asked "I'm Nikki." She said "my names Carl." I said sitting down far from Nicki. I didn't want to terrify this girl any more.

After an hour or so of going through my room avoiding terrified Nicki, the door opened and Lucius walked in "ello Carl, dinner time." He said, then he saw Nicki and took off his hat "las'." He said before we left the room. "so what've you people told these people about us outsiders? They're terrified of me." I asked "we jus' tell stories we heard my dear mate." He replied we aren't really like that you know." I said. "yeah, well, we like scarin' em' too." He said before we stopped.

"Now I'm 'fraid you'll need to be blindfolded fo' this part mate." He said pulling out a bandana "it's chill, I can do that." I said taking the bandana and putting it on. For the next few minutes I was led around by Lucius, not knowing if I was just going to get shot. I heard doors open, the clack of shoes on stone floors, and some chatter. Then the blindfold was yanked off my head and I was looking across the table, and there he was…


	21. Chapter 19

**On the Hunt**

He was across a long table from me, the Regent. He had well cut brown hair, a short beard, pale skin, like Lucius, and was dressed in a business suit. "Sit down over here Carl; you're the guest of honor tonight." He said. I nodded and sat near him. "So, tell me about yourself." He said

The

Walking

Dead

"Well, there's not much to tell, I lived at one camp for most of this, then about three four weeks ago I left, well we all did. My group got scattered by a swarm of the creeps. I haven't seen my friends since." I said "you've held together very well son, very well indeed." He said "thank you sir." I replied. I heard a door open and turned around to see a girl in a red dress walk in "hi daddy." She said "hello sweetie, this is the boy who brought your servant back." The Regent said motioning towards me. "Oh, well thanks." She said sitting between me and her father, after a few seconds a few more people walked in, a older woman with black hair, the Regent's wife, two guys my age, one with brown hair and the other with black hair, the girl's brothers, and a little girl only about seven years old with brown hair.

"So what's your name?" the girl asked me "I'm Carl." I replied "no last name?" she asked "I'm the last member of my family alive so it's not really needed, how many Carls are still alive anyway." I joked. "What's your name if you don't mind my asking?" I asked "Kayla." She replied giving a slight smile. "Carl, how bad is it out there?" the Regent asked "well, it's not good. This is the first old-style dinner I've had in months. And supplies aren't too plentiful." I said.

"so son, are you skilled with a sword or do you rely on your gun?" he asked, this struck me as strange "I only ask because I have some fencing foils and my oldest boy loves to duel, but he is bored with all of us." He said "well, I've never fenced but I am skilled with hand to hand weapons." I said. The Regent nodded slowly. After what seemed like an eternity the Regent excused me from the table "well Carl, thank you for attending dinner. You may go." He said "thank you for the dinner sir, and thank you for the shelter. I'll not soon forget this kindness." I said standing up and reaching to pick up my dish.

"We have servants for that." the Regent said gesturing to a servant to take my dish. A woman walked up and took my plate. "goodnight." I said "goodnight." He replied as I was blindfolded and led out of the building. Once back in my building I went to my room and closed the doors "Nikki?" I asked "she's not here." I heard a girl say. I turned and saw the girl I was working with, she had a black eye on her left side and a bruise on her right cheek "holy shit are you okay?" I said hurrying over to her.

"I'm fine Huckleberry, just hurts is all." She replied "come over here and let me see if I can do anything about that." I said pulling out the chair from my desk. She walked over and sat down, I knelt in front of her and looked at her eye and bruise "you look like you're gonna propose to me Huckleberry." She said "sorry, not like I could anyway. I don't even know your name." I said as I reached out slowly and touched the bruise on her cheek "my names Daniyah-ow!" she replied as I touched the bruise.

"sorry, just seeing how bad it is." I said "it's alright, I've had worse beatings." She said "what? Here?" I asked "yeah, and other places too. I've been a slave for months now." She replied. "I'm sorry to hear that." I replied "don't be, it was my own fucking fault." She said "hey, don't blame yourself. Trust me, if you start you'll find a way everything's your fault." I said "You sound like you know what you're talking about." She said indirectly asking me if I did.

"I used to. Hell, I still fucking do." I said "why?" she asked "someone died. Someone I loved but I couldn't protect her when it counted." I said "I'm sorry, I understand the feeling." Daniyah said. We sat in silence for a little bit before she spoke "well I better go before her royal bitchy-ness notices I'm not there." She said "alright. Goodnight." I said "goodnight. I'll get Nicki to-""no, leave her be. I don't want a slave." I said. Daniyah smiled for a second "okay, goodnight then, I'll talk to you tomorrow Huckleberry." She said before going to the balcony and climbing down. I laughed as I realized she had been calling me that the whole time.

I quickly went to my doors and locked them, then I dragged my desk in front of them and put all the chairs in the room in the way of the hinges. I finally went to the windows and locked all of them and pulled the curtains and shutters shut. I sat down and leaned against the head of my bed, then I closed my eyes and tried to sleep.

**At the van…**

"Hey babe, how's your arm?" I asked "still feels like there's a hand attached to it." Noelle replied "Linda said that'll never go away." I said sadly "hey, it's fine, really. I'm just worried about Carl right now-" she said "why are you always worried about him, his opinion, I feel like the third wheel in this relationship." I said angrily "Caleb, he and his people saved my life. I owe him for everything I have-" she said "if you owe him everything then why bother with me, cause' he wasn't available? Cause he was grieving?" I asked "BECAUSE I DON'T SEE HIM THAT WAY! I LOVE HIM BUT I'M IN LOVE WITH YOU!" she yelled.

We were silent for what seemed like forever "when I say love, I don't mean romantic or anything, it means he's like family to me. I'm in love with you. I guess I never made that clear." She said sadly "Noelle, I'm sorry. I just didn't understand, please I'm- I'm sorry." I said…

"A little domestic dispute in there?" I asked "yeah, just Noelle and Caleb." Gabby replied "what about, if you don't mind my asking?" I asked "well Ian, I didn't hear everything but from what I heard Caleb thought Noelle was in love with Carl, which she isn't. He didn't get Noelle's views on love, you can love people, a lot of people, but you're in love with one person. If that makes sense." She replied "yeah, I'm lost." I said "figured, guys." She commented.

"Hey, be nicer. I just don't like when the soap opera we live attracts an audience." I said motioning to the creepers attracted to the noise. "Well, let's handle it." Gabby said "Rosana and Linda are on it." I replied as Rosana began to go ape-shit on the creeps "so what do you see in her?" she asked "that chick is a fucking badass, and she's just damn sexy when she's being badass." I said "really? That's it?" Gabby asked "no, there's a bit of that whole, can't really describe it attraction going on there." I said "yeah, that's sweet." She replied "don't tell her I said any of this, okay. She'd call me a softy." I pleaded "I'll take this conversation to the grave." Gabby replied…

Linda and I finished off a few creeps before we walked back to our lookout from a stairwell in a nearby house. "So…" I said "let's be honest, neither of us is a conversationalist." Linda said "yeah. But you've been with us for a month, I don't know you too well." I said "fair enough, my entire family's dead, my niece was killed when the camp was attacked; she was living with me before all this since she was five, her dad told me to take care of her and I fucked up. Before that I was an army medic, I served three tours in the middle-east and even before that I wasn't unlike you." Linda said

"Like me? How am I as badass as you?" I asked "when I was in high school I was a ditcher, I smoked pot, and hung out with all the guys my mom hated, my dad wasn't in the picture, he died in a gas station explosion while my mom was pregnant with my brother. I was a lot like you, I liked the color black, I did too many guys for my reputation's wellbeing and I never could keep a good relationship with anyone, 'cept my bro." she said "hey, I've only gone out with like five guys and Ian's the only one I've gone past making out with." I said.

"But your family isn't your favorite group of people, and one of them died." She said as she scanned the area with her rifle. I stared at her silently for a second "I can see it on your face kid, who was it?" Linda asked. "My parents and my little brother. It was a drugstore shooting; they were in the crossfire, I got grabbed by a random stranger, this old lady pulled me out of the guys crosshairs and basically tossed me out the door of the fucking store." I said remembering the gunshots, I heard them all, my mom didn't die when she got shot, she was writhing in pain on the ground, her chest was open, blood was pumping out.

"When the EMT's got there my mom was still alive, my little bro and that old lady got pronounced dead at the scene. About a year later my dad blew his brains out. I lived with an Aunt till this all happened." I said "you froze up, you were scared. That's why now you put yourself at risk all the time, why you do all the things that are dangerous but necessary. Because you don't want that to happen again." Linda said. "Yeah, if I'm ever in a situation like that again I don't want to be that scared little girl again." I said.

"I had a thing like that happen once, some guy got tagged on a mission and I froze up, he was out in the open and I couldn't bring myself to move, I froze. He got shot again and died. The guy was my closest friend in the squad and I was too much of a fucking coward to do anything." She said "did it happen again?" I asked "nope, I grew some metaphorical balls, you ask anyone I served with after that and they'll say I was insane. Always running out for the wounded, I ran through a minefield twice, crossed enemy lines, got a collection of purple hearts in the process." She said "well, when I grow up, I wanna be just like you bitch." I said, Linda smiled and looked back out into the night…

I was sitting by the front of the van, trying to get a bit of sleep "hey handsome." Gabby said scooting up next to me "hey beautiful." I replied giving her some blanket to get under. We scooted up next to each other and sat for a bit, we slowly dozed off. I was a lucky son of a bitch, Gabby was the best, she never yelled, she always could express how mad she was and never raise her voice. She'd listen to my point of view, and she knew when to compromise and when to make me compromise, I was just one lucky bastard…

**The Regent's Estate 7:46 AM…**

I was up and using a pull-up bar in the doorway to the closet to work out. Forty-one, forty-two, forty-three, forty-four, forty-five; I counted in my head. I had moved the desk and chairs back to where they were originally before starting my workout. I didn't want anyone trying to walk in and find I had barricaded myself in. I heard a knock at the door "be right there!" I answered dropping down and grabbing my shirt from a chair nearby. I opened one door and was met by Kayla "hi, I just was wondering if you wanted to go for a walk with me. My dad never lets me walk alone and I would like to walk without one of his guards." She said.

I knew I needed to get close with this girl, even though she was a slave owner, the daughter of a regional tyrant, and just rubbed me the wrong way. "sure." I said putting my shirt on and grabbing my pistol and its holster. I put the holster belt on my jeans and slipped the pistol into the holster. "Where are we gonna walk?" I asked "just around the estate." She said "alright." I said closing my door and walking with her. As we came to the stairs I slid down the handrail and landed quietly on the marble floor at the base of the stairs. Kayla laughed a little at my antics "what?" I asked "nothing, it's just that, well for a person whose probably killed hundreds of the goons, you act like an eight year old when you see a staircase with a railing." She said.

"No I don't, I act like a seventeen year-old man when I see a staircase with a railing." I said smirking a little bit "whatever you say" she said reaching the bottom of the stairs. "So, were you always that fit?" she asked "nope, at the start of this whole thing I was kinda skinny." I said "really? I can't picture you skinny." She said "what about you, before this were you living like queen?" I asked. "eh, sorta, not like I had servants, but my dad was an ex black-ops guy, the government owed him big time from what I heard. But that's all I heard." She said "back to me, I grew up in the house we're in. well, not just in this house but you get the point." "yeah, I get it." I said.

I opened the door and we walked outside, I looked around and made sure to remember where guards were posted. "So what's been going on the past few days?" I asked "I heard my dad's men went to a camp in the woods a few miles away to trade supplies and were attacked, a few of the survivors talked about a young man with a tomahawk, he easily killed a dozen of them, and then killed a few more." She said "that guy sounds like a badass." I commented, complimenting myself. "they say he had a group of five or six others who were almost as good as him." "sounds dangerous." I replied.

We walked past a shed full of spears and two guards. I looked around and noted where guards with guns were and where I could go and not be seen by them. "So, how long are you gonna stay?" she asked "I figured I'd leave today, maybe around noon." I said "don't, stay. I'm sure my dad would be happy to let you stay." Kayla practically ordered "I really have to go, I've got friends out there-" "it's safe in here, and I don't want you to go." Kayla interrupted.


	22. Chapter 20

I knew I could stay now, I knew I had time to work. I walked on eggshells the rest of our walk, avoiding any mention of my inevitable departure. After our walk I hurried to my room and closed the door. I had to get the information I needed out of the regent and get out soon.

The

Walking

Dead

I sat with Rosana in our over-watch spot scanning the area, watching for any threats. I saw three shadows move about fifty yards away. "creepers?" Rosana asked "no, too quick. It's people." I replied raising my rifle and aiming at the general area of the intruders. "don't shoot, we're not here to hurt you!" a man yelled standing up holding an M4 by the barrel in one hand and a military hatchet in the other. Two other people stood up each holding their weapons above their heads "who are you?" Rosana asked "former captain Will Tabor." The led man said "Will? Is that really you?" I asked "Linda?" he said confused.

I hurried down the stairwell and walked out to meet him "it is you, you lucky bastard!" I said hugging him as I got close enough. "what can I say, maybe your luck rubbed off on me." He replied "how do you two know each other?" one of his people asked "this is crazy Lin. The medic from my squad when I first joined the army. This woman will do anything to save a person's life." Will said. "who are these people?" Caleb asked putting a hand on his tomahawk "calm down kid, Will here would never hurt anyone he doesn't have to. So don't make him have to." I said.

"So why are you all camped out here?" Will asked "we're waiting for someone, he's kidnapping the Regent, we're going to interrogate him to find the man in body armor, he killed Caleb's grandpa. And organized the attack on our old camp, we're getting even with the bastard." I said. Will looked at me for a second before looking around out campsite "she died didn't she." He said "yeah. She did." I replied…

I sat trying to think of a way to get the Regent, how to get him out of this fort, and how not to die in the process. Then there was a knock at the door, I quickly answered it. I was shocked to see the Regent and two guards "hello Carl, I heard you were thinking of leaving soon." He said calmly "yeah, I need to try and find my friends, it's something I have to do." I said "well before you leave how about you help me out, my son Blake loves to fence, but it's been a few weeks since he's been able to because we simply can't find anyone to fight him, if you would be so kind as to do so I would gladly let you leave, even give you a small regiment of my men. How 'bout it Carl?" he asked. I thought for a moment before answering.

"Sure, I don't see why not." I replied "good, follow me then." He said walking towards the front door of the house. I followed quickly with my backpack and supplies, we walked outside and into a courtyard. I saw his son Blake eagerly practicing with his sword, there were two racks of weapons, some were swords, other were axes, there was a club I recognized as Gramps's gunstock club, and many spears.

These spears were obviously made to kill creepers; the spearheads were about six inches in length and shaped like a bowie knife blade. About two inches back from the head was a crosspiece to keep a creep from getting closer. At the opposite end of the spearhead was a metal ball the size of a clenched fist. The spears were all metal, made of only two pieces, the crosspiece which was about as long as the spearhead and the rest of the spear, which seemed to have been forged or welded together.

"Pick your weapon punk." Blake said cockily "fine dude." I said removing my backpack, pistol, and my extra knife from my belt. Then I walked over to the racks and reached towards a hatchet before withdrawing my hand and quickly grabbing a saber. I quickly felt the edge, it was sharp, lethally sharp; I quickly realized that the Regent meant to get me killed. I knew I needed to be able to fight at my best to stand a chance and traded the saber for a hatchet and unsheathed my fixed blade knife.

I saw a few guards' eyebrows rise, when I turned to look behind me and Daniyah draw her knife in anxiety as she quietly grabbed my backpack and weapons. "Alright, I'm ready." I said taking a fighting stance. Blake smirked and took a very refined and practiced looking stance, we stood twenty feet apart and locked eyes. He quickly made the first move, running forward and thrusting his dueling saber at me.

I sidestepped and swung my hatchet at him, he parried and backed up three steps. He made another lunge, this time much quicker and more difficult to dodge. I made another swing, this time at his wrist, he pulled his hand back just in time to avoid losing his hand. He flicked his blade at me and barely missed my nose. I jabbed with my knife and almost caught him in the shoulder, but he leaned back and avoided my stab.

He kicked out with his leg and pushed me back, I had barely enough time to recover before he tried to stab me. I rolled to my right to avoid it before quickly rolling back forcing his sword out of his grip. I then tried to swipe his feet, he jumped over my kick and hurried to the weapons rack, I grabbed his ankle and tripped him.

He attempted to kick me in the face but I caught his foot, before I could twist his ankle he rolled, escaping my grasp. I hurried to my feet, knowing I'd have little time to prepare. I had just taken my stance when he thrust at me with a spear. I ducked under and quickly rose back up gripped the shaft of the spear and leaned backwards, wrenching it from his grasp. I threw it aside and retrieved my knife, again just in time to use it to deflect a slash from his new saber.

He swung at my legs and I jumped over the blade, swinging my hatchet at him, he ducked under my swing and punched me in the face. I staggered backwards, parrying a swing from his saber as I did. I knew I had to end this fight quickly or I would lose, I saw the Regent in the corner of my eye and slowly moved the fight that direction. As we grew close enough I made my move, quickly avoiding an attack from Blake and I whirled around and got behind the Regent.

I put a knife to his throat and moved away from his guards "if anyone here moves an inch he dies!" I yelled "DAD!" Blake yelled "let him go!" Kayla screamed "open the front gates, all your slaves and I are free to go, all guards are to throw down their guns. NOW!" I ordered. Daniyah quickly grabbed the spear I had thrown aside and stood beside me "you heard him! NOW!" she yelled.

The guards all threw their weapons towards me, and about a dozen slaves all picked up weapons. "I'll kill you someday." Blake said throwing his saber down "no, you won't." I replied bluntly "you, Lucius, come with us." Daniyah ordered putting a spear to his throat. We all moved to the gates, which were open, and hurried out and into the cover of the alleys between houses. And all the guards and the Regent's family could do was watch…

Will had settled in well, he and his two friends were already helping around camp, putting their supplies in with ours, helping syphon fuel for another car; he even gave Ian a M110 rifle. We were catching up on old times, times before the dead walking around, happier times. "My parents used to ask about you, if I still talked to you or wrote letters to you." He said "I always liked them, you know, they might still be-" I started "Lin' don't get my hopes up, I know they're probably dead. I've come to terms with that." He said.

"Sorry I-" I began before hearing footsteps, lots of footsteps. Will and I ran towards the noise and saw a group of about twenty people jogging towards us. I raised my rifle to fire "DON'T SHOOT!" I heard "Carl?" I questioned lowering my weapon. "yeah, it's me." He said once close enough. "Guess what I got?" he asked "you're kidding, great job." I said patting him on the shoulder as two people walked forward holding a man with bound hands and a suit on. "I hate to get all Bond villain on you but, the Regent I presume." I said mocking him…

"Hey Gabby, here's something for you." I said handing her a spear "it's a bit of an upgrade from your sharpened pipe." "Carl, this is awesome. Thank you!" she said hugging me before examining her new weapon. I walked over to Daniyah, who was busy tying Lucius to a streetlamp pole "you lil' prick, I'll kill you when I get outa this-" he started before Daniyah began to punch him in the face repeatedly. "Whoa whoa calm down, he may have information we need." I said grabbing her fist before she hit him again.

"Back off Huckleberry! This is the bastard who bought me, who tried to break me. Besides, you've got the Regent, this asshole is mine." She said "she's right, we've got who we want." Caleb said pulling me aside. "thanks." She said before she resumed beating Lucius. I pushed Caleb away and walked towards the Regent. I grabbed him and dragged him to the van "Carl, I've got a place set up better." Linda said before I began interrogating him.

She helped me drag him to a nearby building and strap him to a chair. I heard the door open behind me and turned to see someone I never thought I'd see again. "Will?" I asked "Carl? Small world huh?" he commented "you two know each other?" Linda asked "we met once months ago, just a bit after all this started." I said. I shook Will's hand before speaking again "ready to help out?" I asked.

We all turned to face the Regent, who Linda had tied to a chair "first things first, what's your name?" I asked "fuck you-" Linda hit him across the face "what's your name?" I asked again "I said fuck-" Will punched him this time "one more time, your name NOW!" I demanded cocking my fist back "my names Clarence." He quickly said "good, now tell me, what's your bosses name?" I asked "I don't have a boss-" I hit him across the face "bullshit. I know you work for the man wearing riot gear, tell me his name now!" I ordered.

"I'm not stupid, he'll kill me!" he pleaded "now, he won't. Hell I won't kill you even." I said "if you think I'll double cross a friend you're wrong." Clarence said. "Fine, tell us which way he went?" I asked "no." Clarence replied "if you don't tell us I'm sure I can go and get Kayla to tell me something I can use." I said "don't you fucking touch my daughter you bastard!" Clarence yelled "then tell me what I want to know!" I yelled back.

"He, he went north, towards Petaluma, to another Regent. An old army buddy named Marco." Clarence said "he controls about twenty to thirty miles of farmland and small town out there." "Thank you for your help, now tell me one more thing, how long ago did he leave?" I asked "he left almost a month ago, maybe a day or two short of a month." He replied. "alright, thank you. Let's go guys." I said gesturing for Linda and Will to leave.

We exited the building and were met by Daniyah "a deal's a deal. He's all yours." I said "thanks Huckleberry." She said entering the building with a knife and a shovel. She closed the door behind her and we heard repeated punched shovel hits and slicing muffled by the wall, and we heard Clarence's horrifying screams of pain.

We walked to the van and looked at all the former slaves "you're all free. It'd be best if you all find shelter, you don't want to get caught in the open." I said to the crowd. Then I opened the van and gathered my old things. I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned around, Nikki stood there with a small smile "thank you Carl." She said before kissing me.

She hugged me once before hurrying to join the other freed slaves. "nice." Ian said high-fiving me. "So Will, long time no see." I said "yeah, over three months now, so, will Amrita be jealous?" he asked. My friends were silent, they all reacted a bit differently, Rosana and Ian looked at the ground, and Noelle just looked sadly at me. "she's dead Will, A man named Wild Camon killed her over a month ago." I said. "I'm sorry; I knew you two were close." Will said "don't apologize, it wasn't your fault." I said.

"Well, on the positive side we know where to go, Petaluma. The man in riot gear went there to stay with another Regent named Marco." Linda said. "Alright, let's get in the van." I said "wait Carl, I want you to meet my two friends, Elliana," he said pointing to a girl with curly black hair and what my friends and I called the apocalypse tan. She wore a black vest over a denim jacket, brown cargo pants and hiking boots. She held a metal baseball bat and had a pistol holstered on her belt. ", and Fred." He said gesturing to a guy with brown hair less of an apocalypse tan than the rest of us, he wore a grey hoodie, old jeans and had a revolver and a wrench for weapons.

"Nice to meet you guys." I said extending a hand, Elliana smiled for a quick second to acknowledge my gesture and Fred shook my hand "you too." He replied. "Well, let's pile into the cars and get moving, we've got ground to make up." Linda said. "Cars?" I asked "yeah we've fueled up two more vehicles so we wouldn't be so crowded, we fueled up a suburban and a pickup truck." Linda said. After a quick decision of traveling arrangements we split into our three vehicles, the truck in the front, with Linda, Rosana, and Ian in the cabin, followed by the van, driven by Caleb, with Noelle, Gabby, and Tyler in it along with our supplies, and in the rear of the caravan was the suburban, with Will at the wheel, and Fred shotgun, with Elliana, Daniyah, and I in the back. We drove north, towards Petaluma, we were on a hunt. And we would not stop our chase until our prey was dead.


	23. Chapter 21

We drove north, towards Petaluma, we were on a hunt. And we would not stop our chase until our prey was dead.

The

Walking

Dead

**Two weeks later**

I walked back to our camp with Daniyah, we were returning from a hunting mission and I carried our prey on my shoulders. When we walked into cam Caleb was standing guard with Gramps's war club, which he'd apparently gotten from one of the escaped slaves. "sup." I said "hi." He replied quickly. He'd seemed to be mad at me for the past two weeks for some reason and no one knew why. I threw the deer on the ground and pulled out my multi-tool. I quickly cut open the deer, and removed the unusable organs, then by hand I broke the connective tissue between the skin and the muscle.

"uugghh, why by hand Huckleberry?" Daniyah asked "it's quick and easy." I said as I pulled my hands out and began to use my knife to cut again. After five minutes I had gotten all the good meat off the deer and handed it to Will and Fred who put it over the fire to smoke the meat. "hi Carl, want any help?" Elliana asked "sure, can you help me move this thing away from our camp, I don't want any unwelcome visitors, living or dead hanging around camp." I replied.

We each took two legs and walked the deer into the woods, we walked for twenty minutes before setting the deer down and hurrying back to camp, killing four or five creeps on the way. When we got back to camp I walked over to the suburban and grabbed my AK, then I climbed on top of the van and looked around. Rosana and Ian were on a scrounging mission and should have been back by now, I was getting nervous now.

"Carl don't worry. They probably just found a place to fool around." Linda said trying to calm me down. "Yeah, you're probably right." I said watching the road "how far are we from Petaluma?" I asked Will "five miles, we'll be in the Marco's territory soon." He replied "Clarence said there were some small towns; we should probably stay in one of those if we can. Stay hidden for awhile." I said.

"That's probably a good idea; if we lay it right we can probably start an uprising." Linda said "that's a good idea." I said "yeah, maybe we could wrest control from Marco, then hit him and the man in body armor while they're weak." Will suggested. "Alright, we've got our game plan. Let's get ready to pack up and leave tomorrow morning." Linda said. I looked towards the woods and saw a few creepers stumbling out "I got it." I said drawing my knife, gripping the oak handle tightly in anticipation.

I walked towards the creeps calmly, knowing I could handle five creeps easily. The quickest one reached out for me, I calmly avoided its hands and drove my knife through its temple. I quickly turned to the next one, pulling my knife from the other creeps head and stabbing it into the others forehead. Then I moved to the next one, which I quickly got behind and stabbed in the base of the skull. I tripped the next closest creep and stomped its head. Then I used my knife to stab down on the last ones head.

I pulled my knife free from its skull and walked back to the van and cleaned the blade. "Whoa, where'd you learn to do that?" Elliana asked "I figure it out myself. The creeps are pretty slow and stupid, when you get used to them they really seem way less scary than when this whole thing started." I said "could you teach me moves like those?" she asked "sure, next time we find some creeps I'll show you some tricks." I said.

She smiled and walked away to go sit on top of the van. "So how long did it take you to learn that?" Tyler asked "not long, I figured out that these things were pretty slow and weak about two or three weeks into this. I figured they were dead and dumb about three or four days in, realizing they were dead made everything much easier." I said. "So, how many people have you seen turn?" he asked "one." I said.

"Only one? Where they bit?" he asked "no, she died from a stab wound, then, well she came back." I answered "wait, you don't need to be bit to turn?" I heard Caleb ask "yeah, all you have to do is die. I thought you knew that." I said "no, and you never thought of mentioning this shit?" he asked angrily "Caleb calm down-" Noelle said putting her hand on his shoulder but he shook her off "NO! he should have told all of us!" he yelled.

"I knew." Daniyah said "and so did we." Fred said standing up "well, we didn't!" Caleb said gesturing to Gabby, Tyler, Noelle, and himself. "And do Ian and Rosana know?" he asked "I don't know. But I'll tell them when they get back-" I started "you better fucking tell them!" he said taking a step towards me, fists clenched. "Caleb calm the fuck down now, we don't want to attract creeps-" Linda began "I don't fucking care, how fucking long were you gonna sit on this asshole?" he yelled at me.

"I didn't know for sure about that, hell, all I know about infection is that bites are how it happens, maybe scratches too. I wasn't sure whether Amrita got scratched or if Camon had killed a creep with that knife too, all I know is if you die you can still turn." I said. "Fuck you man, fuck you!" Caleb yelled before storming over to the van and sitting down. "Carl, when were you gonna tell us?" Noelle asked "I was gonna tell you guys back at the campsite, but all that shit happened and I forgot." I said.

Noelle sighed in disappointment, then walked over to Caleb. "Who's Amrita?" Elliana asked, I didn't answer "Will mentioned her once, but not who she was." She said "no one." I said before looking up and seeing more creeps walking out from the woods, attracted by Caleb's yelling "ready to learn those tricks I told you about?" I asked, Elliana nodded and grabbed her baseball bat…

**The next day…**

I woke up inside the suburban and quietly got out and stood up before a day of driving. I heard a moan and turned to see one creep; I used my knife to kill it and then quickly cleaned the blade. In about half an hour all the others were up, Ian and Rosana had gotten back before dark yesterday and we had packed the supplies they had gathered into the cars. As soon as everyone was up we packed up what was left of camp and got into our cars.

I watched the road fly by out the window. I could tell Noelle and Caleb doubted me, Ian and Rosana took it well, Rosana even said she'd probably not have told. I never would have picked Rosana to be one of the people to have my back no matter what. Ian must've talked to her, like he did with me; I guess we just never needed to talk about it.

We passed a sign that read "now entering Petaluma" I looked around the car and saw that everyone but will was asleep. "So, are we gonna try and find a town?" I asked "yeah, but not in cars, it'd be better we did this on foot." He replied "hey guys, wake up." I said shaking Daniyah awake before leaning across to Elliana. "Get up, we're walking." I said as Will held his arm out the window and held out a peace sign, out signal to stop.

The cars slowed to a stop and we all got out, Will ran to the other cars to tell them the plan. Meanwhile Fred, Elliana, Daniyah, and I geared up. Elliana had her baseball bat, a pistol, and a knife. Fred grabbed his revolver, a large wrench, and a knife. Daniyah packed her shovel, a pistol, a knife, and an M4 with a small scope. I grabbed my tomahawk, knife, silenced pistol, my sharpener, and an AK. We all carried a pack with the survival essentials and I noticed Elliana pack a small synch-bag into the small pocket of her backpack.

Will walked back to the suburban and grabbed his M4, his pistol, a hatchet, a knife, and a small bag of equipment for weapons maintenance. I looked and saw the others grabbing their weapons, Rosana grabbed her shotgun and crowbar, Ian his machete and new rifle, Noelle grabbed her adz, a new weapon she could use one-handed, and her pistol. Caleb had Gramps's club and a pistol, Tyler grabbed his wrench, shotgun, and pistol, Gabby took her spear and sidearm. Linda grabbed her M4, hammer, knife, and pistol. We all adjusted our packs and made sure our hiking boots or running shoes were comfortable before setting out to find a town.

**The next day…**

We moved slowly and in the shade, avoiding as many areas where we could be seen as possible. Will walked in the lead, I followed second, and in the back was Rosana, between me and Rosana I didn't know the exact order of people. We walked till noon before stopping for the first time, we all sat in a loose group under a tree and passed food and powdered drinks around. "Hey Noelle, pass the orange powder." Rosana said; Noelle tossed a small packet to her. "Anyone have any bagged cereal?" Fred asked "here, catch." I said tossing him a plastic bag of cheerios "thanks." He replied. "Ten 'till we move again." Will announced, we all nodded in acknowledgment.

I watched the surrounding area while I ate; I noticed a few things moving in the distance, they were too fast to be creeps and seemed to be people "guys pack it up now!" I exclaimed shoving my food into my pack and grabbing the weapons I set on the ground and taking off after the people.

I ran quickly, I heard a few of the others behind me but didn't look back. I kept a line of sight with the new people; I figured they'd lead me to a settlement. Will began to pass me, I looked at him a grinned "race you." I challenged "you're on." He said between two breaths. We each took off as fast as possible we passed the last few buildings in this part of town and began running through the countryside. There was a knee-high fence coming up and I easily strode over top of it, so did Will, I saw the people running for another part of town the end of a long road, I could make out one large building that I saw the people heading towards.

"That building" I pointed "got it." Will replied trying to pull ahead of me, his heavy pack weighing him down. We moved two streets over from where we saw the strangers enter and moved towards the large building. "I really hope they're in that building." Will said as we got closer to the building; as we grew closer I saw a sign by the building it read "Winston College" we looked carefully at the windows as we approached.

The building looked like it was one of those schools built recently, it was an entirely indoor school with three floors, it was huge, I figured it could house a hundred easy, maybe two hundred. "Let's not be threatening." I said stepping into view, my gun over my shoulder and tomahawk in view "HELLO?" I asked loudly. I turned around and saw the rest of my group behind me looking around nervously; Daniyah had her M4 shouldered "lower the gun Dani." I said gesturing to her.

The front door of the school opened and ten armed people came out following an eleventh man who was armed with a pistol "tell Marco we already gave him his supplies." He said aggressively "we aren't with him, we swear." Will said. "Prove it. All of you hold up your left hands." The man demanded we all raised our left hands. "They're clear." One person said "clear, clear of what?" Daniyah asked "you all have five fingers on your left hands, Marco's guys don't." the man said "good to know." I said.

I heard the moans of creepers behind me and turned to see about thirty creeps stumbling towards us "can we continue this inside?" I asked unholstering my silenced pistol and taking one creep out. "Yeah, come in." the man said motioning for my group and I to come in. as soon as we were inside the armed people inside all had weapons trained on us "drop your weapons." The lead man said "hey, we aren't a threat." I said "drop the weapons or we'll drop you kid." He said pumping his shotgun once.

"Alright, alright, we'll drop our weapons." Will said "dude!" I said "set the weapons down, they aren't worth dying for." He said "Carl, just do it, we're safe in here. You don't need all your weapons." Linda said "fine. " I said setting all my weapons down. The rest of my group had already set their weapons down except for Daniyah, who set her gun down when I did. "Now that we got that out of the way, my name's Nick, apparently I'm the leader of this place." He said "nice to meet you, my name's Will." Will said stepping forward and extending a hand Nick shook it.

"Sally'll show you where you'll be staying." Nick said handing a redheaded girl a pistol before walking away "if you'll all follow me that'd be great." She said. We all followed her, as we passed one hallway a guy about my age with black hair and pale skin walked up to Sally "hey Sal, you down to hang out?" he asked putting an arm around her "I'm showing these new people to some dorms." Sally said brining her arms close to her sides and looking slightly down.

I nudged Rosana and she nodded "so they can find the dorms, just tell'em the numbers and they'll find 'em." The guy said "Simon I'll be there in a few." Sally said "alright babe." Simon said before walking away. "Well there are some free dorms up on the second floor; you'll all have to share though, so pair up." Sally said "we're alright with that, we've been sleeping in cars for a long time. Personal space is a luxury." Gabby said "good, these dorms aren't too big." Sally said. A small Redheaded child walked up to Sally holding a toy rocket ship "hey Miles, having Fun with the rocket Alyssa found?" she asked "yeah!" Miles replied "WWWHOOOOOSSHHHH!" he ran off making rocket noises.

"My little brother." Sally explained "cute." Noelle said smiling "he's one of the youngest kids I've seen in a while." Linda said. We all walked up a staircase and walked up to a row of doors; Sally stopped for a second "Dorms 23 through 28 are empty." She said. My friends and I nodded in acknowledgment before walking to our new dorms; Linda and Will walked into one and shut the door "bout' time." Rosana said as she and Ian entered another. Noelle and Caleb claimed number 25, Gabby and Tyler staked out dorm 26, and Fred walked into dorm 27. "I'll be in dorm 28." Daniyah said walking into dorm 28 and tossing her pack onto the floor.

"Hey Ellie, did you see how Sally just shrank when that guy walked over?" I asked as I walked into dorm 28 "yeah, we should keep an eye on that." She replied walking into dorm 27. I shut the door behind me and before I had time to react "dibs on top bunk." Daniyah said climbing up "fine." I said setting my pack down and sitting on my bed. "Can't believe they just let us stay here huckleberry." Daniyah commented "same, and it seems like starting a rebellion will be easier than I thought." I said "yeah, things might go smoothly this time." She joked.

I stood up and took a step towards the door "where're you going?" Daniyah asked hopping down from her bunk "I've got a sneaking suspicion about something here that's not right." I said "that guy, the creepy lookin' dude, right?" she asked "yeah. He just rubbed me the wrong way." I said adjusting my knife sheath and practicing a quick draw. "They didn't take your knife either?" Daniyah asked "no, they didn't." I said pulling my shirt over my knife and opening the door "hey, count me in." she said walking past me and into the hallway.

We walked downstairs and looked for Sally and Simon, we walked the halls and eventually found them sitting in what used to be a classroom by the window. Daniyah and I stood out of sight on either side of the doorframe and listened in on their conversation "listen I really don't want to, I've already got Miles to take care of, this would just be more to worry about." Sally said "babe come on, it's safe." Simon said "can I think about it?" Sally asked "sure, just don't keep me waiting." Simon said.

"What a fucking creep." Daniyah whispered "yeah, let's cut in." I replied "hey Sal' could we ask you a question?" I asked leading Daniyah into the room "oh, uh sure, what is it?" she replied "when exactly could we get our weapons back?" I asked "you'd have to ask Nick." Sally said nervously "thanks, have a good day." I said as Daniyah and I left the room. As soon as we were out of earshot of them we began to talk "Daniyah, can you keep an eye on Simon?" I asked "yeah, I can do that, but I think first we need to deal with the man in body armor, we may have already missed our window." She said.

"Oh crap, you're right. Go get the others, I'll talk to Nick." I said "got it, we'll find you." She said. I looked for Nick, I found him in a small office with a few advisors "Nick, we need to talk." I said "what, I've got shit to deal with myself kid, your problems aren't mine." He said without looking up "actually they are. Marco, the man in body armor, they ring a bell?" I asked. Nick looked up and was silent "my group and I want them dead, we know you do to, we'd be more than willing to help you. With some conditions." I said.

"Conditions?" Nick asked "one, the man in body armor is ours, if your people find him; you catch him, not kill. One of my people wants his head so to speak. Two, we want a permanent place here." I said Nick's advisers left the room. "Hmm. I'm alright with the first one, and right now we can't have you as permanent residents, but take down Marco and our supply shortage may go away. I'll consider it." He said. "Consider it? We have a narrow window which may be closing as we speak; we need your help getting the other towns united against Marco now, if we don't we'll lose the man in body armor and have to find his trail again, your people will still have to give supplies to Marco and his private army, now is the perfect time while my group is still a secret." I said.

At this point my friends walked in led by two armed people, one was a girl with dark blonde hair big blue eyes, an apocalypse tan, and an hourglass figure. The other was a large black boy about my age with a shaved head, broad shoulders, and hazel eyes. "We need to strike as soon as possible, you seem to have plenty of fighters, I bet the other towns would be willing to lend fighters if we ask." I said "I know I don't know the whole situation but I agree with him, we've been under Marco's thumb long enough, it's time we stood up to him, we've gathered the weapons, all the fighters are trained enough to use them, we can do this." The black kid said.

"Jordan, you are out of line." Nick said "Nick, I've been to the other towns, they hate Marco and his goons as much as I-we do. If we start a rebellion it could work, especially if these new people help." The girl said "Alyssa, you know what happens if we fail." Nick said. "I'll risk it, and I'm sure everyone else here will too. It's just you who's scared." Alyssa said. Nick stood up before speaking "he will wipe us all out if we fail! All of us! Even Miles!" Nick yelled slamming his hands on the table.

"We're going to fight. We don't care if you don't want to." Jordan said "if you fucking fail we're all dead. Don't please, there are families here. You are about to put them all at risk." Nick said "we're about to free everyone. Sorry if we disagree man." Jordan said. Then we all left, Alyssa and Jordan led us to the armory, were we claimed our weapons. Then Alyssa gathered anyone who could fight and we assembled in a speaking room.

Will, Linda, Rosana, and I stood on the stage in front of everyone ready to speak. "Hello everyone, we're about to go up against Marco and more importantly, the man in body armor. He is who Marco works for, he is the leader of a string of regents who control smaller areas, and Marco is one of them. We killed one further south a few weeks ago, before we did we got a tip the man in body armor was headed this way, which means he will likely attack settlements like yours, from what happened at two camps we know of this man has killed the leaders or whomever seems like the most capable warrior for what seems to be fun or to exert his authority. We will be fighting not only Marco's men but a small group of guards who follow the man in body armor while he moves from place to place." Will said.

"This man is ruthless, he will attack your families, your friends, anyone he thinks is connected to you. He will not show mercy, he has killed people close to us, and he will not hesitate to do the same to you if you fail." I said. I looked around and saw many faces that were eager at the start of this were now turning to expressions of concern and fear. "We will not force any of you to take part in this, but if you do we expect full commitment. Nothing is to be held back, not skill, not effort, not willpower, not information, nothing!" Rosana barked like a drill sergeant.

"Our strategy is to split into a few smaller groups, go to each of the other surrounding towns, gather troops for our revolt and in five days attack where Marco is, then if the man in body armor is there, which we highly suspect as a week ago we were given this information by a group of people on the side of the road who lost a daughter to him. We will plan the exact methods of the attack once we see the compound. Any questions or information?" Linda asked.

"Marco has a farm about fifteen miles away walled off, he's holed up there. That's all I know." One man said "thank you, everyone we need to divide up, we'll adjust them and then tonight we'll move out." Will said. Then he motioned for my friends and I to assemble "guys, we may need to split up. Maybe two of us to a troop. Just be prepared." He said. I looked out to the fighters and saw there were six groups of about ten or fifteen at the most. "I think we're coming up on the end of the hunt. Good luck. And no matter what happens, it's been great." Will of us could think of anything else to say, we all looked at each other, silently saying good luck and possible goodbyes to one another, knowing some of us weren't seeing the end of this mission.


	24. Chapter 22

My friends and I split up, two to a troop. I looked and saw my friends, family, all mentally preparing for the end of the hunt. I sat with Daniyah, silent; neither of us felt like talking really. We just needed to focus.

The

Walking

Dead

I looked at the fighters Daniyah and I would command, I saw Jordan and Alyssa were in our group. There were a few formidable looking people in the group, but most did not intimidate me. "How many do we have?" I asked "thirteen, excluding us. And only about four real fighters." Daniyah whispered "alright, point them out." I said "Jordan, then we got the guy in the back with the tattoos and beard; another is the big chick, black hair, big rifle. And lastly we got a Samoan guy with a huge war club in the corner." She reported. I looked around and saw the other five groups weren't better off than us.

"Well, let's head out than. Alyssa, we need you to meet with the other guides and figure what town we're going to, then we'll be off." I said "alright, be right back." Alyssa said getting up and walking to the other guides. In about five minutes Alyssa got back and sat down "we're going to the town a few miles west of here, I know people there and it's about a day's trip. We set a meeting point about three miles from Marco's compound; we'll meet the other units there, and if one unit's not there the attack will start without them." She reported.

"Alright, let's head out." I said grabbing my weapons. My troop stood up and left the school, the other residents stood and watched us leave, all with sad looks. They knew that this was the last time they'd see many of these people. Once we got out into the night we began to run, Alyssa leading the way. We ran through the night and into the day, we stopped at noon for a water break and Daniyah caught a quick nap; I figured I could rest once we got to this town…

**The last evening…**

"Noelle, I'm sorry but I can't let you come with me." I said "what? You can't go alone!" she said angrily "Noelle, I don't want you to get hurt, you can't load clips yourself, you can't reload a gun fast, you can't use a rifle or a two handed weapon, you're not up to this risk." I said. Noelle glared at me "I can do this Caleb! I can't believe you don't think I can!" she angrily said. "Noelle, if you got hurt or-or worse on this I'd never forgive myself, you have to stay." I pleaded "Caleb, what if the same happens to you? I'd have let you go alone! It'd be my fault!" she argued…

We walked past Noelle and Caleb arguing, I didn't pay attention to what, but it must've been important if it was stopping them right now. "Rosana remember, if it gets too crazy, or we've got no shot at winning, we bail. We run, get a car, and head south." I said "Ian, if this gets that bad we've missed our chance to bail." She said taking my hand…

**The current day…**

Daniyah and I called our troops to get up and we went back on the run, Alyssa ran to the front and began to lead the way. "How far now?" I asked "we'll be there before sundown, probably at around four or so." She said "what time is it now?" I asked "one-twenty." She said "crap." Daniyah panted. We ran for what seemed like years, following Alyssa through the countryside. The rolling hills and twisting streambeds that made the landscape seemed like an endless blanket thrown over the earth. Over one hill I saw smoke rising "we're almost there!" Alyssa called out; we all pushed forward, running as fast as our legs would carry us, what we saw almost brought us to our knees.

The town was in ruins, buildings were torn down, there was a ring of tires and cars that must have been the walls, and smoke rose from the ashes of what must've been the gates. "No!" Alyssa cried before running towards the town "Alyssa!" Jordan called as he and I ran after her. She ran to what must've been the gate and collapsed, she didn't bother to hold back the tears. Jordan put a hand on her shoulder and didn't say a word. I couldn't bring myself to say anything; I just looked at what was left of the small town, knowing that if people lived here and died here, soon there'd be creepers springing up from nowhere.

I walked back to the group and sat down in front of them "it doesn't look like anyone survived; we need to clear this place, sweep what's left of the buildings and kill any creeps that are already back, and if you see a body that hasn't turned yet smash the head. I don't want gun use, we don't have the fucking rounds to spare." I said, no one moved an inch, they just stood in disbelief. "MOVE!" Daniyah yelled explosively startling them into movement.

We hurried into town and began smashing the heads of corpses we found, most were somewhat burnt already, but the heads were still intact. I stepped into one room and was met by four creeps, I whistled and Daniyah quickly came over and helped me kill all four silently. After two hours we all met and organized into a secure formation and hunkered down for the night I walked over to Alyssa, who we put in the center of our group to protect her. "Hey, Alyssa, I'm sorry to have to bring this up, but if I wait I'd be wasting time. Are you still able to get us to the rendezvous? If you're not we can get someone else to guide us and have someone take you back to the school." I said.

"I'm not a little kid; please don't talk to me like a kindergartener who just threw a tantrum." She said "I'm sorry. That's not how I meant to come across. I know you had friends here, you mentioned it before. If you don't wanna-" I began "I want to go through with this, I want Marco's fucking head." She interrupted. "Alyssa, trust me, revenge just hollows you out as a person. It's not healthy." I said "but that's what your people are after. You're a hypocrite." She said "I realized it a bit too late; I came to help Caleb get justice. But a few weeks ago I realized its revenge he's after. By the time I realized it I couldn't leave or say I was done." I said sitting down about three feet away.

"But revenge is good; you know that whoever you get revenge on got what they deserved." Alyssa said "it feels wrong, and it's your idea of justice, not an unbiased view." I said "how do you know it feels wrong?" she asked. I took a breath "because before I met up with most of the people in my group I took revenge. There was a group; they murdered my best friend, three other people I knew, and someone very close to me. I slowly and mercilessly tortured the man who led that group. And after, I didn't feel like I had done the right thing." I said "why, you'd gotten even-" she started "no, no I hadn't, I didn't come fucking close to even. I did worse to myself, what that monster made me do, I lost. I was brought down to his level." I said.

Alyssa looked at me for a second, then she began to cry; she didn't sob or make any noise, she was silent. Her shoulders shook with the small gasping cries; she hugged her knees and buried her face out of sight. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, I really didn't-" I stuttered "it's not your fault." She said "I just miss him so much." She cried. "You lost a close friend." I guessed "I was gonna move here, I was gonna live with him. Now he's gone." She managed to say.

I didn't know what to do, I hadn't dealt with this open emotional contact in months, I hadn't had to comfort or consul anyone at least. I hesitantly reached my hand out and went to put it on her shoulder. I set my hand on her shoulder and gently rest it there for a second, then suddenly she lunged at me and had her arms wrapped around me in a second. She began crying into my chest, I didn't know what to do at all, all I could do was hug her. I lightly put my arms around her, too unsettled by all of her open emotions to really know the best thing to do or say. I looked around and saw Daniyah looking at me, I sent an expression of confusion to her and she shrugged her shoulders as if to say "don't look at me dude." I was on my own here.

Eventually Alyssa cried too much to cry anymore and was quiet, she loosened her hold on me and I eventually was able to guide her to a sleeping pad and put a blanket over her to keep her warm. Once she was asleep I moved away and went to sit by Daniyah "well-handled Huckleberry." She said "not really, I'm not used to that sorta touchy feely shit, never really have been too good at it." I replied. She raised an eyebrow "you seemed like you knew what to do." She said "thanks for the compliment." I said.

Suddenly I heard the plucking of guitar strings; I looked around and saw the silhouette of a man with a guitar. I walked over and quickly and precisely snatched the instrument from his hands "do you want to bring down more creeps on us dumbass?" I asked "I was playing quiet man-" "it doesn't matter, without any noise to drown it out this sound carries." I whispered harshly. "Sorry, I didn't know." He said "use some sense next time." I scolded before taking the guitar and setting it with Daniyah. "Fucking idiots." I said to myself "I can take first watch." Daniyah offered "thank." I replied, accepting her offer and pulling my blanket from my backpack. I lay down on the ground and dropped into a forced sleep…

**Meanwhile…**

We found a town, our guide was able to get us in and the town's fighters were eager to help. We had been provided rooms to stay; the entire town was made of a few apartment complexes and small buildings between the complexes. Gabby and I met with the leaders of the town, five people who acted as a small council making decisions on resource management and political dealings within and outside their town. We met with them in a meeting room with a large table in the center.

"So you want us to lend a sizable chunk of our fighters, to risk our entire group, because you want to take down Marco and this man in body armor?" one woman asked. I thought quickly "we want to take them down, you're right. But think, you'll be able to keep all your resources, to have surplus food, medicine, and ammo. Do you want to pass this up?" I asked. The woman frowned and furrowed her brow, she was considering our proposal. "Gina, we could be free." One man said "he's right, you'll all be free, not only to your resources, but to a cut of Marco's too, just like every other town that helps us." Gabby offered.

I instinctively hid my protest against her unplanned proposal, she didn't run that by me earlier and it caught me off guard. "I'd say take the deal." The other woman of the council said, the other four whispered to each other before addressing us from across the table "if you keep your end of the deal we'll help you." Gina said. Gabby and I withheld our excitement and celebration and politely recognized their acceptance.

**Approximately 5 A.M. in the morning…**

I woke up and found Alyssa was already up and sitting where she had been sleeping last I saw her "how long have you been up?" I asked. She jumped a little and turned to face me "oh, uh not long, maybe twenty minutes." She answered. "Is Daniyah still on watch?" I asked "no, Jordan is." She answered "thanks." I replied looking around in the dark for Jordan. I saw him about ten feet from the main group standing, looking into the night pointing his rifle into the darkness. "hey." I said "oh, sup." He replied calmly "have you been on watch long?" I asked "not too long, don't worry, I'm ready for the next two days, if that's what you're wondering." He said "just checking." I said.

"So why do you hate this dude, the one in riot gear?" he asked "I don't hate him, Daniyah and Caleb hate him, I just promised to help them like an idiot." I said. "You should tell the ladies something more heroic; make yourself seem like Robin Hood or something. You know noble, charming stuff like that." He joked "I don't know, I'm not really looking for that right now, I don't wanna risk it." I said. "You mean STD's or the chick getting pregnant?" he asked half-jokingly "no, the emotional attachment, early on in this I was with a girl and she got killed. After she died for a while I was just not able to focus, I couldn't get my head straight." I said "what'd you mean?" he asked "I just lost my moral compass man; she had kept me honest, fair, and doing the right thing. When she got killed I got thrown off, I was all over the place, I went crazy." I said.

Jordan looked at me for a second, I could barely make out his expression, but it looked like understanding. "I sorta know the feeling." He said "I had a girl too, and she died early on, about a month in. I get it man, now that you put words to it I understand what you're saying." Jordan said solemnly. We didn't talk for another half hour; all we did was stare into the ending night. The light finally began to edge out the night-time gloom.

"We should move out, this isn't a place to linger." I said "yeah, I'll start waking them up." Jordan said walking towards the sleeping troops. I stood guard with my AK slung over my shoulder, my tomahawk and knife in hand, keeping watch for walkers as the group slowly got up. "Hurry up; we've got ground to cover people!" Daniyah said stirring everyone to move faster, she grabbed my pack and walked over to me. She handed me my backpack and I put it on, I took one drink from my water bottle before returning to watch.

As soon as everyone had their gear ready I nodded to Daniyah "alright let's move!" I ordered. Alyssa took the lead with Jordan and I following closely; Daniyah took the rear and kept the people running. We ran for the day with only two rests, when we made our way to what Alyssa said was the rendezvous point and made a campsite. "So, now what?" Daniyah asked me "now, we wait." I replied.


	25. Chapter 23

Marco's compound was only a hundred yards away. I kept my head down as rounds flew over my head "TYLER! TELL IAN TO TAKE OUT THE SENTRIES!" I yelled over the gunfire. Tyler nodded and crawled away to find Ian, who was busy sniping Marco's men. We were up shit creek right now I thought looking over at Fred's dead body…

The

Walking

Dead

I looked off into the distance, watching the next troop to arrive. So far Gabby, Tyler, Linda, Will, Elliana, and Fred's troops were in. We were waiting on Ian, Rosana, Caleb, and Noelle's groups to show up. "Guys, we need to move forward with the offensive." Will said "agreed, let's work out a plan of attack." Linda said gesturing for our group to gather around. Linda pulled out a map "so we're about five miles from Marco's compound, his compound is surrounded by a wall of tires and storage containers he's had moved there. From what I've heard the wall's about thirty feet tall with three gates to the inside. I have no clue what's inside the compound, but I know it's pretty big, and it has at least three guard towers." Linda said giving us the Intel she got from her guide.

"So what's our game plan, surround them, take control of the three gates, get rid of the towers?" Fred asked "all of the above." Will said "do we have the manpower to do that?" Fred asked. Linda looked at our small army before answering "we do now." She replied "and when the others show up they'll know to head towards the compound, where we can fill them in on our plan; in case they don't we'll leave a few people here to guide them." She said. "What's our plan, start the attack at one location or as many places as possible at once?" I asked "I think we should stagger the attacks, give them enough time to gather defenders at the site of the attack and then attack at a vulnerable location, and then we repeat the process." Linda said "I'm for that." Daniyah said nodding in agreement.

"How many people do we have?" Linda asked "we've got about a hundred." Gabby replied "that's plenty." I said "maybe not, Marco and his people have been able to extort all these towns they may have enough to hold us off." Linda said. "We'll need to attack at night then, send a small stealth team in, and kill some people while they're sleeping." Tyler said. "That's a suicide mission, especially without Caleb and Rosana." Will responded.

"Carl!" Jordan called "yeah!" I called back "Caleb's here!" Jordan yelled "send him here!" I said. Caleb walked up to our small meeting and sat down "good to see you." I said "yeah, sure." He replied not looking at me. I ignored him and Linda filled him in on our plans. "I'll volunteer for the stealth team." Caleb said "fine, hey where's Noelle?" I asked "stayed behind, said this is too dangerous and she'd slow us down." He said "what? That sure as hell isn't anything Noelle would say, where is she?" I asked "I made her stay at the school, this is too dangerous for her, without her hand she's in no condition to fight." He said "and you made that decision for her, do you realize how stupid and chauvinistic you sound right now?" Gabby said "shut up, both of you! She's my girlfriend, this was my call-"he started before I punched him in the face and knocking him to the ground.

"That wasn't your call, this was her call you fucking asshole. When we're done here we're gonna talk. Got it?" I asked angrily "yeah, but you know what, after this, I'm gone." He said putting his hand to his jaw. "GUYS! Calm the fuck down, let's put this aside for now. Now, right now, we need to plan for this attack." Will said "sure, whatever." I said "fine." Caleb coughed. "Carl, if we use the stealth team you're on it, you're easily the stealthiest one out of us, and Daniyah you're on too." Linda said "wait, what about me, I should be on that team too!" Caleb snapped "you're in no shape, you're loud, shortsighted, and impatient." Will said "the man in armor killed my grandpa, I deserve revenge, and you're going to keep me from that?" Caleb asked.

"We won't kill him, he's your kill, but we can't let you fuck this up for everyone else, with these towns involved now, this isn't about us anymore, or what we want, this is about these people." Daniyah said calmly. Caleb scowled at me for a few seconds "fine, but if this doesn't work then I'll settle for your head." He said "Caleb!" Gabby exclaimed putting her hand to her pistol. "You turned Noelle against me, you made her hate me, and you've made it so I'll probably never get closure." He said "I didn't do that, you did it with your fucking obsession and anger, that wasn't me!" I yelled back.

"HEY! Cool it you two!" Linda said stepping between us and pushing us apart "I will if he stops trying to bait me!" I said angrily "I don't give a fuck about what ether of you is doing, both of you shut up." Will commanded. "Our strategy will be as follows, we'll attack at night by sending in our stealth team of Daniyah, Carl, and a few hand-picked fighters, once our presence is known we'll assault the outside, hold the gates, and send in multiple squads as forward assault. We'll attack as long as needed to kill Marco and capture the man in body armor. Am I perfectly clear?" Will asked.

I nodded and waited a moment, Caleb nodded reluctantly too. "Alright, Daniyah and Carl I want you to pick your team, keep it small and fast." Will said dismissing us. Daniyah and I walked through the troops looking for people to take on the stealth team "my first pick's Jordan, from what I've heard. Who's your first?" I asked "the girl with the AK submachine gun, sleeveless flannel." Daniyah said "I think my second pick is the small kid in the hoodie, the one with the short sword." I said pointing at a small kid, no more than five feet tall with a hoodie sharpening their weapon.

"Okay, let's get two more; I'd say we take the brother and sister over there, the ones with the silenced rifles and." Daniyah suggested "yeah, I think they're our best pick, let's get our map marked and get out on with it." I said. I walked to Alyssa and the other guards "Carl wait, I need to know, are you alright to do this? You seemed downright hostile towards Caleb there." She said "I'm just here to get Marco and the man in armor out of power; I frankly don't care about Caleb's whole "I'm getting even" obsession. I really just don't want guys like the ones we're about to attack around, I don't give a shit about the revenge thing. Not anymore." I said before turning and walking to the Alyssa.

Alyssa and the other guides drew directions on my map and then I folded it up and put it in my pocket. Daniyah and I gathered our team and waited for Will to tell us the timing of our infiltration. "At eleven o'clock you'll infiltrate the wall, then we'll attack at midnight. You have one hour to get in and silently, key word, silently kill as many of their people as possible, not just fighters, anyone who can hold a weapon needs to be killed." He said coldly "we'll get it done." Jordan said stepping forward "good, you all should get moving." Will suggested before walking away. "Carl, take this, it's a silenced 1911 pistol. A bit of an upgrade from your tiny little Makarov." Will said handing me the pistol, its holster, and a handful of magazines "thank you Will." I said before walking away.

I folded the map and put it in my shirt pocket, and then I grabbed my weapons and a combat backpack, which I'd packed the night before. Inside were two water bottles, some odorless food, a spare pair of socks, ammo, an extra knife, and some general medical supplies Linda taught me how to use. The rest of my team put some packs on and grabbed their gear, then we hit the road…

Carl and Daniyah took their team and moved out and into the rolling hillsides. I looked into the horizon for a few minutes looking for Rosana and Ian "Linda, they'll be fine. They aren't kids." Will said "you're wrong. They are kids, hell almost a quarter of our fighting force are kids." I said "no, they aren't. They're men and women now. Anyone their age is now, this world's made them into men and women we'll never be. They've grown up so fast in the past half year; I bet if any of their parents from before saw them they wouldn't recognize them." Will explained.

"But they aren't grown, they aren't adults." I argued "maybe not, but they're men and women; if that makes any sense at all." Will replied calmly looking out with me into the horizon. "I just hope Rosana is alright. She's so tough, but she's just so hurt." I said "reminds me of you, tough as hell, but beat up as hell too." Will said taking my hand in his gently "Will, it didn't work last time. And is this really the time, right before a battle?" I protested "it's a new world, one where you can't wait till' tomorrow to do things, I may not have a tomorrow. And I'm okay with that, but only as long as I live like I have a today." He said looking me in the eyes…

I sharpened my spear using a smooth round rock, one I'd found weeks ago while on the move. "Hey Gabby." Tyler said walking up and sitting next to me. "Hey Tyler. What is it?" I asked sticking my sear into the ground and putting a hand on his knee. "I'm just nervous is all. We're going to war, we're taking strangers and friends into a battle and most of us are probably dead people walking." He said brushing his black hair out of his face. "Tyler, we'll get through this. We always seem to survive stuff. This is just another hurdle we need to clear." I said "but these people are dangerous, they'll kill us without thought, and me, I get guilty from killing creeps. How am I gonna take a life? Hell back at the village when I killed that one guy, I was sick to my stomach and I threw up at the clearing after the fight. How can I do this?" he asked.

"Honestly, I've got no easy answer, but at least you feel guilty. A few weeks ago Carl and I were talking and he confided in me that the worst thing about this was the killing, how he doesn't feel guilty, it's weighs on his conscience like stepping on an ant even killing the living. He can't stand it, how much he doesn't feel. Tyler, you still feel. You're lucky." I said taking his hand…

"Fred can you help me with this?" Elliana asked "what?" I asked back "help me wrap this wire around my bat." She said. I walked over and saw her wrapping her bat in barbed wire "whoa, this is a bit brutal isn't it?" I asked helping wrap and secure it on. "I just need a bit of an edge, just in case I don't hit hard enough, I'm thinking of hitting some creeps with it beforehand, getting some gunk on it, so if one or two people I hit get away, they're not lasting long." She explained. She reached into her pack and pulled out some tape, but the tape was snagged on a small synch bag and it got pulled out too.

"What's in that?" I asked "just something my boyfriend gave me." She said "what, a gift?" I asked "yeah, a locket. Our pictures are in it, he gave it to me the day before this happened, he died the next day." She said taking out the locked and looking at it. "Aren't you gonna open it?" I asked "no. I can't, I haven't for months. I just can't bring myself to." She said staring longingly into her reflection in the polished surface of the heart-shaped locket. "Hey, life is short, you should look, and it might bring back good memories." I said "or bad ones." Elliana said apathetically "you won't know till' you try." I commented.

She slowly opened it, hesitantly looking in it at first. Tears began to roll down her cheek, but she was silent "I'm so sorry, I didn't think, I'm sorry-" I began apologizing. "No don't, I was just remembering this time- this time he and I went to the park, I was feeding some birds, and he- oh he wanted to impress me. We hadn't been dating long, only a few weeks and he managed to put birdseed all along his arms. And he just held out his arms and stood still." She told through some tears "I didn't know what he was doing at first, but then a swarm of small little birds just flocked to him, all landed on him and started eating." She smiled a bit.

"Sounds like a funny guy." I said smiling a little "it gets funnier, after a minute or so this big raven swoops out of a tree, and lands on his shoulder," she recounted, looking forward as if it were happening in front of her", so this raven eats a bit, then it takes a crap right on his shoulder, he shakes the bird off and looks at his shirt, and he and I just laugh. And we can't stop laughing. I don't remember how long we laughed for, but we just couldn't stop." She said starting to laugh at the memory. I couldn't help but laugh with her, and we just laughed…

It was growing dark and we had arrived at the compound, it did have three gates, and it had a few guard posts. There was a guard post at every gate, and another at each of the three corners. There were armed at least two armed guards at each post, all of them were armed with rifles and was scanning the area. "Remember we wait till' eleven. Then we sneak in." I reminded the squad; they all nodded and lay down behind the cover of some small dirt banks and rocks. "I'm gonna get a look at the gate, see if we're gonna get through there or squeeze through somewhere else." Daniyah said taking out a monocular.

"Shit, we ain't going through the gate. We don't have a quiet enough way through." Daniyah cursed "look for another way in." I said. She nodded and looked around for a few minutes, these minutes felt like agonizing hours to me. "Got one way in, the nearest guard tower, the other towers can't see it through a tree they got inside the wall, probably for fresh fruit. There's some support scaffolds we could definitely climb up. As long as Les and Jess can take out the three guards in the tower before we climb up, then we'll move fast." Daniyah said. "I don't like leaving them behind." I said "is there any way I could use my new pistol to make the shots from closer?" I asked. "no, you won't have clear shots at pistol range, unless one of them can take out three armed men in under three seconds then they both have to stay and catch up later." She said.

"Carl, we'll be fine. We can make those shots." Les said looking through his rifle's scope "fine." I conceded. "Once we're inside Carl and Mae will take the lead. We need your close sword and tomahawk leading the way in." Daniyah said "I think you should bring up the rear, and Retha you should be in front of her and Jordan, be ready to cover either front or back with that AK you've got." I said "alright, I'm down." She said "Jordan, you'll have Mae and my immediate backs, you need to cover us and any forward firing position while she and I are hand to hand, if I get my AK out then you switch with Mae and are second." I said "I got it, you can count on me." He said looking over his silenced Uzi.

"Les, Jess, when you guys catch up we need you to take the post and another firing position to provide silent cover after opening the gate." Daniyah said, the siblings nodded in acknowledgement "now we wait since we all know our jobs let's catch some rest and wait till eleven, Jordan keep an eye on the time." Daniyah ordered "on it." Jordan said. I made sure I was out of sight and shut my eyes, resting for what I knew would be a brief time.

**10:50 pm**

Daniyah woke me up silently and I quickly entered a state of awareness, I slipped my new pistol out of its holster and I loaded in a fifteen round clip which stuck out about three inches from the bottom of the pistol's polymer handle. I waited for my eyes to adjust and saw the silhouettes of two of guards leaning against the railing while the third stood drinking something from a flask. "move." I whispered leading my team to the scaffolding, once near the wall Daniyah signaled the siblings to take the shots as I began silently climbing up the guard post.

I didn't hear the shots but as I looked up I saw the two guards leaning against the railing slump against it lifelessly and heard one more silent thump as the third collapsed. I looked up the thirty foot wall, looked down and grabbed a small LED flashlight about the size of an old thumb-drive, I twisted the front half a quarter turn and it lit up the scaffolds enough that I could see; I held it in my teeth and climbed higher on the wall as silently as I could.

I reached the top railing and before looking over it I drew my silenced pistol. I slowly peered over and saw the three guards' dead; I climbed over the railing and quickly stabbed each in the head, permanently killing them, then I looted the bodies for ammo and knives. Slowly and silently my team followed me up and I gave out my stolen supplies before we moved in formation down a small staircase which was obviously impromptu when it was built, as the steps were uneven in height and of varying materials. I held my tomahawk in my right hand, while covering my front with the silenced pistol I held in my left hand; over my shoulder was my AK, tightly secured but accessible.

At the bottom of the staircase was one guard, I looked around to see if anyone was watching him before I crept up behind him and snapped his neck, I caught his limp corpse and hid it under the bottom step. My team and I then went to our objective, thinning out Marco and Armor's troops. We slowly crept to the first building, hiding behind crates or tables every time someone walked past. Every time I hid I felt as though I was spotted, but I kept my cool, we all did. Finally after twenty minutes we worked our way into the first building, full of sleeping men. The room reeked of liquor; these men were out cold, now we went to work. I moved into position with my knife and mouthed the words "Follow my lead." to my team.

With my other weapons holstered I quickly covered one man's mouth and simultaneously slit his throat just under the chin. The others used the same technique and we killed every other man, knowing the killed would reanimate as creeps and feast on the still living. As we worked our way to the second room I looked in the doorway and saw a family, three children, the oldest being five, huddled next to a mother sleeping deeply. "Do we take them out?" Daniyah whispered looking at me concerned, I sat for what I learned later was a few minutes questioning whether I could kill a mother and her children, end a family, a blood family, something I no longer had, something I longed for, all for a revenge trip.

"No, they aren't fighters. Just don't wake them up." I whispered as we snuck through the room and out the other side of the building. We moved to the next building before Jordan looked at his watch "we're out of time hi-" he tried to say before a horrifying scream rang out, the woman I couldn't kill. "hide-" I began before gunshots exploded the fragile silence from outside the walls.

I looked up at a window by chance and saw a rifle barrel point out "Mae look-" I tried to say before the shot was fired blowing the left side of her head off. "COVER!" I yelled as we all found a place to hide. Retha let a bust of her AK submachine gun go, killing the gunman who killed Mae. I turned to the door and saw it open and three men with melee weapons step out, I rushed them with my tomahawk.

The first man tried to block my swing but I hit his crowbar from his drunken grip and used my backswing to hit him in the temple with the hammer of my tomahawk, smashing open his head. I had just enough recovery time to dodge a swing by the second man, and avoid a machete thrust by the third. After avoiding their blows they ended up on either side of me, the man with the bat swung just as the one with the machete lunged forward; I stepped clear out of the way and heard a squelch and thwashch noise. I turned and saw they had killed each other, then a gun wielding man exited the building, looked down at the three dead bodies, looked up at me and then raised his rifle to fire. Just as he was about to shoot his head exploded as Jordan shot him "I got your back man." He said before spinning around and shooting another man. We needed to hold out until the others could get in through the gate we opened…

"Keep shooting!" I ordered as a hail of bullets whizzed by my head. Fred popped up to shoot at the guard tower with his rifle, I tuned and could just see the shooter had a bead on him "FRED DOWN!" I yelled just before the back of his head blew off and he slumped lifeless to the ground. I ducked down and heard three bullets hit the rock I was behind.

I tried to pop u to shoot but this sniper had me pegged, I couldn't pop up without him almost getting me. I looked to my left side and saw of all people Rosana and Tyler crawling towards me "I thought you weren't showing up." I said "decided to last minute, Ian's on the south wall. He's in a bit of a sniper fight with a guy there." She sad over the gunfire. I acknowledged her before trying to shoot again, only to almost be shot again "damn Will, he's got you locked down." Rosana said "me and this whole side." I replied.

Marco's compound was only a hundred yards away. I kept my head down as rounds flew over my head "TYLER! TELL IAN TO TAKE OUT THE SENTRIES!" I yelled over the gunfire. Tyler nodded and crawled away to find Ian, who was busy sniping Marco's men. We were up shit creek right now I thought looking over at Fred's dead body. "Rosana, we need one of these gates under our control, can you get to the one on the east face, the one with the tree by it?" I asked. "Yeah, why?" she asked "I got a hunch that's our gate." I replied. She crawled away over Fred's corpse and disappeared into the darkness, only to reappear with the muzzle flash of a gun. We are over our heads I thought to myself.


	26. Chapter 24

I looked through my scope and saw a silhouetted man, he had a rifle pointed up in the air and I knew this was my chance. "Go fuck yourself sir." I taunted as I smoothly pulled the trigger and saw the sniper crumple like a tower of legos with the base swept out from under it.

The

Walking

Dead

It had been two hours and my squad and I were getting un-pinned, taking out numerous gunmen in the process. I fired my AK across to the far house at a man taking pot-shots at my team, my burst caught him in the stomach and he collapsed screaming. I heard a loud creaking noise and hear footsteps and yells "They're in!" Daniyah yelled firing on a man shooting from the balcony of the far house. We kept the house under fire while Jordan, Retha, and the siblings covered our backs. I turned and saw our people being led by Caleb and Rosana running through the compound, engaging Marco's men in hand to hand combat.

I turned back to the house and saw two men fleeing it, one with short black hair and camo clothes carrying a M4, and another in body armor, the man my family and I had been tracking for weeks, his shield and machete on his back, in his hands he had a large military gun. "oh shit-fuck, he's got a SAW!" Daniyah cursed hiding, I followed her lead just as he let loose a rain of bullets. I looked and saw a dozen people drop dead. "CALEB! CALEB!" I yelled pointing to the man in armor; he looked and took off after him, shooting with a pistol.

I looked and saw the man in armor's gun spark and the barrel shatter "OH FUCK!" he yelled pulling his shield and Machete in front of him as he dropped his broken gun. "Daniyah, cover us!" I barked running with Caleb after the two men. As we ran a man jumped out from behind some crates, I leapt at him and as I passed him I slit his throat. Caleb and I rounded a corner and were met by two more troops; he used his club and killed them both with one swing.

We ran as fast as we could to catch Marco and the man in armor, as we came around a storage trailer I saw the two men stopped and Alyssa with a gun pointed at them. "YOU KILLED THEM!" Alyssa yelled "no girl I didn't. I swear-" "YOU LIE! YOU'RE LYING!" she yelled cutting Marco off. "He's not lying girl." The man in armor said calmly turning by chance and seeing Caleb and I. "ah, hello." He said "you're dead." Caleb said stepping up to him, then the man in armor took one step forward "DON'T MOVE!" Alyssa yelled raising her gun.

As she pulled the trigger the man in armor pulled Caleb and spun, pulling him in front of the bullet meant for him "Caleb!" I yelled rushing him. Marco then tackled Alyssa and they began fighting; the man in armor pushed Caleb at me, I sidestepped and took my fighting stance. I used an overhand blow to try and hit him but he blocked and threw me over him.

I moved with the momentum though and instead of landing on my back I landed feet first and rolled to get safe distance. When I stopped he had his shield and machete in hand, I dodged a slash, and barely had time to avoid a backhand hit from his shield. I tackled his machete arm and pushed, his arm bent back behind him and I felt a pop accompanied by a tearing noise. He screamed and kneed me in the gut, causing me to stagger back. He them brought his shield down three times on me while I was doubled up in pain and I fell to the ground, instinctively I rolled to the side and avoided a crushing blow from his shield.

I ended my roll facing up and desperately swung my tomahawk at his shoulder and knocked a plate off, tearing some of the Kevlar on his sleeve but not getting his actual shoulder. He stepped back and dropped his shield, staggered by the force of my blow. He punched me three times with his good arm before I kicked him in the crotch. As he staggered back I saw him reach for his hip, where I saw a pistol, I had to draw first. I tried to get my hands to my pistol but he had his leveled on me and was ready to shoot.

"NO!" Alyssa yelled jumping in the way and taking three bullets, he body fell on top of me and I lost hold on my pistol. "goodbye." The man in armor said as he knelt down and pointed his pistol at me, exhausted. Just as he readied his hand to shoot I kicked his head, knocking his helmet off and throwing his shot off. I heard a scream and a thud behind me as I pushed Alyssa off me and grabbed my pistol.

In the blink of an eye I aimed and fired on the stunned man, blowing out his eye and the left side of his head then my knees gave out. I dropped my pistol and crawled over to Caleb, I looked back and saw Marco's dead body, a bullet hole was placed between his shoulders and he was slumped on the ground. "Caleb, Caleb." I said shaking him "d-did you g-g-et him?" he asked shakily clutching his chest "yeah. I did. And Marco's dead too. It's finished." I said "tell Noelle, I-I-I'm sorry, and I love her. Okay-y-y." he said barely audible "I will man. And I'm sorry for how thing got between us man." I apologized.

He didn't answer, he was gone. I used my knife and put it in his head, I wouldn't let any of my friends turn. I never would. "CARL!" Daniyah yelled rushing over to me, I staggered to my feet and she hurried to brace me up "let's find you a place to hide." She said walking into a building. When we entered two creeps approached, she fired her M4 twice with her free hand and put them down. We made our way to a closed door when I realized this was the first building we'd entered "Daniyah get out of here, this is the first building, it'll be full of creeps." I said as she reached for the doorknob.

We began to walk out of the building and as we opened the door to the outside I heard the far door collapse and heard footsteps shuffling towards us. Daniyah and I hobbled quickly out the door and hurried to the guard post we'd entered through. I heard the footsteps gaining on us and doubted we'd make it…

Outside the walls the fighting had ceased, and the fighting inside was now mop up work, but I was too busy looking for Linda; she had to be okay, if she wasn't I'd never forgive myself. I saw two bodies on the ground twitch and recognized them as Tyler and Gabby. Their corpses twitched, shook, and jerked; they were reanimating. I quickly dispatched them with my pistol and kept moving. "Will!" I heard someone call, I turned and saw Rosana and Ian "have you seen Carl or Daniyah?" Ian asked "no, oh crap, I haven't seen Caleb either. Spread out and look for them." I ordered.

Ian looked behind me at the bodies "is that Gabby and Tyler?" he asked horrified "there's nothing we can do for them now, focus on the people we may be able to save." I said shooting three creeps as they sat up. "MOVE!" I yelled as a small group of creeps rounded a corner and I raised my rifle to shoot. As I was about to pull the trigger two creeps heads exploded and then two others did shortly afterwards; I looked and saw two teens with silenced rifles calmly put down the remaining creeps "you two went with Carl and Daniyah, did you see where they went?" I asked "yeah, they tried to get to this guard post but they couldn't, last we saw they were heading towards the south side." The sister said. "thanks." I said moving towards the south wall…

We busted down the door to the house and hurried to the cellar, as we walked down the stairs I miss-stepped and Daniyah and I both tumbled down the last five steps. I hit the door flat, knocking the wind out of me "Huckleberry? You okay?" Daniyah asked "no, but it doesn't matter." I said looking at the top of the stairs and seeing a pack of creepers following. Daniyah opened the door and dragged me inside; then she slammed the door shut, keeping the creeps out.

The cellar was pitch black, I fumbled for my flashlight and found the familiar shape with my fingers. I twisted it and looked around, I saw the silhouettes of people, all hung from their wrists and shoulders by chains to the ceiling above. Some snarled, they'd died and turned; others were only dead, but a few saw the light and tried to call out. "help." The loudest one barley managed to whisper.

"Daniyah, go. Help them." I said gesturing to the chained people and handing her my LED light "what about you?" she asked "I'm fine, I'll live, they might not. They take priority." I said pushing my weight against the basement door. Daniyah slowly walked over and went to the first living person and unchained them, the rattling of chains caused the creeps to stir and jangle their chains. She dragged the first one over and set them next to me "here man. Drink some water." I said as I slipped off my pack. As I bent my shoulder back a sharp pain shot down my back one way and up the other, I let out a small cry of pain.

I then unzipped my pack, reached in and pulled out my water bottle, he managed to open his mouth and I gently poured water in; he coughed and spat, but managed to get some down. Daniyah was just then dragging the next one back, a girl with long brown hair that hung down over her face. I looked at both prisoners, I couldn't think of what else to call them, and saw they were dressed in brown shirts and black cargo pants. These people were dressed the same way Daniyah was when I first met her, she must've noticed this and was just keeping silent.

I helped the girl drink some water before helping the boy again, then the last person Daniyah dragged over, finally I ran out of water and just sat and took each of their pulses every minute or so. I didn't want any of them to die on me. I could hear the creeps at the door, scratching, clawing, banging on the wooden door. "I hope the others find us Huckleberry." Daniyah said as she sat down next to the prisoners and me…

"He's gotta be in this house." Ian said walking through the broken down door and looking around. I heard growls and snarls, coming from downstairs and I pushed passed Ian and followed the noise. "Rose, wait up." Ian said walking faster to keep up with me. Eventually I came to staircase that led down, probably to a basement or something, and at the bottom I could see a pack of about a dozen creeps trying to get through a door "HEY! HEY! UP HERE!" I yelled "ROSE! WHAT THE HELL!" Ian yelled as the creepers began climbing the stairs. "Carl and Daniyah might be behind that door, we're gonna fucking see!" I said killing the first creep…

After a loud commotion and then silence I heard a knock on the door "Carl? Daniyah?" I heard "Yeah!, we're here." Daniyah called back moving and helping me to my feet. She opened the door and handed me off to Rosana "get him some help, he took a beating." She ordered "got it. Glad you're okay." Rosana replied "hey, right back at you." Daniyah said "Ian, help me with these three." She ordered.

I looked back on the way up the stairs and saw Ian and Daniyah helping the first two prisoners up the stairs. "Where's Caleb?" Rosana asked I didn't answer her "is he-" "dead, yeah." I interrupted ; she looked at me for a few seconds "guy in armor got him killed not me. So, you showed up." I said "yeah, we got attacked though, it took us awhile to deal with it but we got it done." Rosana said. A creep walked through the door in front of us and she drew her pistol and shot it between the eyes.

As we left the house I saw Will and Linda hug "about time." I joked as she walked with me to the others. "Where're the others?" I asked "Tyler and Gabby are dead, so's Fred. And we can't find Elliana. Is Daniyah alright? And where's Caleb?" Will asked "Daniyah is fine. But Caleb's dead." I answered "I'll tell Noelle when we get back-" "no, I will. I'll tell her." I interrupted Linda looked at me and frowned "you know you don't have to. We-I can do that." She said "it has to be me. This isn't negotiable." I said firmly.

Ian and Daniyah were each carrying a prisoner out of the building and walked past us "where's number three?" I asked "dead." Daniyah replied coldly "what's up with that?" Linda asked. I simply gave her a solemn look and frowned "prisoners." She replied "barely alive, they need food." Rosana said. "Let's get home. We need to heal." Linda said sadly as we walked to the gate and to our new home…

**Two days later…**

We finally arrived at the school, the army had split on the return trip, all the people who survived went back to their home. I limped, using a strong branch as a crutch. As we approached the school a small group came out to meet us and helped us to the school. Noelle walked up to me and instantly let me lean on her "what happened are you alright?" she asked "yeah, I'm-I'm okay." I said hesitantly "where's Caleb-oh no, no please he's joking right, messing around." She said I was about to speak when she interrupted "he's playing a prank right, hiding and he's gonna jump out and surprise me-" I stopped her with a look.

Her knees buckled and we both hit the ground "no, no, no." she cried as she curled up "Noelle, he-he said he was sorry, and that he loved you, he loved you." I said unable to hold back my tears. She wrapped her arms around me and cried "let's go inside." I said trying to get her up but she either wouldn't or couldn't move. Rosana came over and forcefully got her up and Jordan helped me up and handed me my forked walking branch. When we entered the school I saw the looks on people's faces they were broken. We had returned with a third of the people we left with; I saw a few people break down in tears. What had we done?


	27. Chapter 25

Times are a' changing

What had we done? We'd taken these people's loved ones, their friends and family from them. We stole a cornerstone of their lives from them and broken it, toppling their world. What had we done?

The

Walking

Dead

Noelle sat in the cafeteria crying, Linda sat next to her holding her hand. I limped to the nurse's office, along with Jordan and Daniyah, who carried the two surviving prisoners. We set down the two gaunt prisoners and I sat down on the last free table, a nurse set up some IVs and had some people assigned to them, keeping an eye on them to make sure they didn't die, or if they did, make sure they didn't come back. Another nurse looked me over, shined a light in my eye, looked at my back, checked my face, and figured "well son, you may have a concussion, and a bruised rib. The good news is your face, although a little swollen and probably painful is unharmed. No missing teeth, nose ain't broken, and only bruising." She said. "Yeah, good news." I said painfully putting my shirt back on.

"how're they?" I asked pointing at the two gaunt former slaves "the girl will definitely pull through, and the boy will be up on his feet, probably not too steady, in a week or two." She replied. "good." I said getting up "no, no, no. you're staying here. You can't exert yourself, you need to recover. You're staying in this hall for at least a week, while your body gets better." She said forcing me to sit back down on the exam table. "But what if my friends need me?" I asked "they'll have to do without you for a little while hon'." The nurse insisted "I really should-ahh!" I cried as I tried again to get up, but a spike of pain forced me back down "I'll get you some painkillers. Stay put. Jordan, make sure this boy stays in this office." She said as she left.

As soon as the small nurse was gone I forced myself up and walked towards the door, but Jordan stepped in my way "Jordan, let me go." I said "no way man. You aren't in any shape to go anywhere but back to that bed and rest." He said "fuck, I didn't wanna do this." I said before moving to punch him. A jolt of pain shot from my shoulder down my ribs and into my spine knocking me to the floor before I could even get my fist halfway to my target "see, now get some rest, you need to rest." He said helping me to the table. I slowly drifted off to sleep a process I fought the whole way…

"Carl wake up." Mom commanded "huh, what?" I mumbled as I sat up "you need to empty the dishwasher." She stated "mom, it's Saturday, my friends and I are hanging out in half an hour." I said "not if that dishwasher isn't empty." My mom said "mom if you won't drive I'll walk." I said throwing on clothes. "I said no, empty the dishwasher." She said "what, are you gonna hit me with your car?" I asked "no-" "then I'm going." I said tying my shoes.

"Why do I even bother getting you up?" she asked, mostly rhetorically "cause' you're too lazy to empty the dishwasher." I replied as I grabbed my wallet and cell phone. "Carl, if you go you're grounded-" "like you can keep me in. I walk practically everywhere anyway, you don't have as much control as you like to think over my life." I said taking a stab at her psychologically. Lack of total control maddened her, and now she knew I knew that. "I swear if you walk out that door there'll be consequences!" she yelled as I brushed past her and to the front door "none you can enforce." I said taking one more shot at her.

I walked out the door and as I closed the door and turned to look at the road I was instantly met by a brown haired girl "Carl we need to move now!" she said grabbing my hand as we ran. I looked around and saw ruined buildings and creeps walking out of nowhere "Amrita where's Noelle?" I asked as we ran "just two streets over- look out!" she cried as a creep stumbled out a doorway, I lodged my machete in its skull and before I could pull it out I was pulled further "my machete!" I said "leave it!" Amrita as she pulled me by the arm.

I blinked and found myself sitting in a forest, after a moments confusion I knew where I was I looked down and saw Amrita, dead. "oh no, I'm so sorry." I cried suddenly she twitched "hey hey look at me." I said. She was alive, but barely, she was alive! Suddenly her eyes opened, but there was something wrong, the life behind them was gone. "Amrita?" I asked then she growled and reached for me, I jumped back in fear "no. no. no." I said breaking down. She slowly rise to her feet and took a step towards me, I drew her revolver and aimed at her head "go away." I mumbled through tears "just don't make me do this." I pleaded as she took more steps. She leaned in towards me and I pulled the trigger blasting her brains out…

I explosively sat up and found I was sweating "dude, you alright?" Jordan asked "no, man, I just had-no but it's nothing I haven't dealt with." I said hiding my emotions "nightmare?" he asked "memories." I replied "of what? If you don't mind my asking." He inquired "when my girlfriend died. When I had to put her down." I said quietly "her death really hit hard huh." He said "she was my family. All I had after this thing started." I replied "hey man I get it, I still got trouble sleeping too." Jordan replied.

"Yeah, so, how long was I out?" I asked "well you've been out for three days- I'm screwing with you, it's only been one." He replied "thanks. How's Noelle doing?" I asked guiltily "she's not alright, she's just been apathetic and withdrawn. No one can get through to her." He answered "how bad is it?" I asked "she hasn't said a word." He replied "can you get her in here? I just have to talk to her." I said. Jordan nodded and then left I looked across and saw both former prisoners asleep, still with IV's in their arms.

"Sweetie go back to sleep." The small nurse said upon entering the room. She had black hair, and green eyes. She had a dark skin tone similar to dull copper and had a bigger presence than her size. She wore a white tee shirt under a brown jacket. She had jeans and combat boots on, the boots made thumping noises as she walked and added to her large presence. She reached into a cabinet and pulled out medical gloves.

"Have either of them been up?" I asked "not up and about but the boy's woken once, long enough for me to get his name, Arron. Still don't know the girl's name, but she ain't woken yet. Must've been in the place longer than him." The nurse said using me as a sounding board "what's your name?" I asked "Maria Santos." She replied "nice to meet you." I said "same, so, you're Carl right?" she asked. "yeah." I replied "how long were you out there?" she asked "almost the whole time. Maybe a month's time sedentary, possibly a bit longer. But most of this I've been moving." I explained "that makes sense, why you're restless," she said "you've just gotten so used to moving that being still just doesn't sit well with you." I nodded. I guessed she was right, I had been moving so long it just became natural; just like killing. I wish I never had to kill those first creeps they sent me down this spiraling path I couldn't seem to step off of.

"Hey Carl, I got Noelle here." Jordan said gently leading her inside "Noelle, you said if I ever needed to talk to someone I could talk to you," I began ", and the same goes for you; I'm here for you. Please talk to me." I pleaded. Noelle just looked at me with an apathetic gazed, which seemed to be aimed at an un-seeable horizon. "Noelle, please just say something. Please don't shut down, please I'm begging you." I pleaded one last time; Noelle just sat and looked into the wall blankly. "Come one Noelle, let's go to the cafeteria and get you some food." Jordan said helping her up and gently guiding her out of the room.

"She's barely eating, to me it seems out of impulse rather than choice." Maria commented "you guys have people watching her right? You know, suicide watch?" I asked "I assume so, I only deal with the sick and injured, not the damaged or maddened." She replied. How could she do that? Treat only some sick; be so selfish not to help the ones who need a different kind of help. "Is anyone treating them?" I asked "no, who's sane enough to do that? And who's got time to treat all of us?" Maria asked back. That got me thinking, who does help us? Who helps the insane? I sure as hell didn't know…

**One week later…**

I sat in the hall in a chair outside the nurse's office, they were finally giving me a little leash and I was using it to the fullest. The two prisoners were both up, Arron was up and about on a tight leash, like me, and the girl, Lily, was awake, but in no condition to move around. "So Arron, you two know each other?" I asked referring to him and Lily "no, I actually barely knew anyone down there, I'm thankful for it actually, now that I know what happened. I'm happy I didn't know any of those people well." He replied. I nodded in agreement with his sentiment.

"I'm gonna grab some water, you want one?" I asked "sure." Arron replied. I got up and walked into to office, where a few patients would sleep. I passed a currently asleep Lily and reached into a cabinet, grabbing two water bottles. "Eva, where are you? Alexandra? Please answer me." I heard Lily mumble in her sleep "what have you been through?" I asked out loud. I silently left the room and went back into the hallway.

"here." I said passing Arron a bottle of water "thanks." He replied taking it and drinking down half of it. "So, what's your story?" he asked after taking a smaller sip of his water "same as everyone else's. I fight. I kill. I survive." I replied "no, I mean what's happened to you since this started?" he asked rephrasing his question. "I've lost people. I've met new people, lost some of them too. And I'm alive. That's what's happened to me." I replied.

"So, you're not a big conversationalist huh?" Arron asked "not about my past I'm not." I replied giving him a cold stare. We sat for a few more minutes in silence before I got up and walked away, I walked down the hall to a room with nothing but a chair and a window. I went inside and sat in the chair; it faced the window and overlooked some ruins and a field with one lone tree in the center. I pulled from my pockets a small piece of soapstone and a few tools; sandpaper, a small file, metal angle-cutters, a smaller knife, and three drill-bits of different sizes. The soapstone was shaped into a small cube about 3x3 inches in dimensions and was a greyish-white color.

I began sanding down all of the hard edges and rounding them. I still didn't know what I wanted to carve out of the stone, so I just did some generic shaping. I stopped after twenty or thirty minutes and simply stared out the window at the view. Sun was moving just past noon height and I saw three birds fly over the ruins of a drugstore. I sat and watched the sun begin to go down.

I got out of the chair slowly, my back and shoulders were still sore, and I had trouble moving fast. On the walk back to my bed I passed a few people who were getting medicine for stuff like headaches, stomach cramps, congestion, stuff like that. As I opened the door to the office I heard a scream inside and opened the door quickly to see Lily sat up panicking. "WHERE AM I? WHERE-WHERE-WHERE-ARE THEY?" she screamed "Calm Down, Lily Calm Down!" Maria pleaded. She reached out to touch her, but when she got close she sent Lily into even more panic. "GET AWAY! GET AWAY!" she screamed flailing her arms, pulling the IV out and falling off the table.

"hey, hey, look at me. Look at me." I said calmly as I sat in front of her "Stay-stay away!" she screamed, avoiding eye contact "Lily, look at me, you have to." I said. She hesitantly looked at me, when she made eye contact and quickly looked away. Then she slowly looked back at me and made almost eye contact with me, looking me not in the eyes but in the face. "Just look at me, okay, just look at me." I repeated "this woman is Maria; she's trying to take care of you but you need to let her." I said slowly and calmly. "no-no, I have to take care of my sisters, my-my little sisters, where are they?" she asked "we, we don't know where they are. I'm sorry but we don't." I replied.

"Then-then I have to go looking for them. I promised our-our parents I'd keep them alive and safe." She said attempting to get up. She barely managed to get to one knee before falling over again "when you're better you can, but you need to recover." Maria said moving to help Lily up, Lily flinched before calming a bit before allowing Maria to help her up and get her back on the table. "Carl, come with me." Maria said as two other people took watch over Lily.

"You need to stay with her; you were the one who calmed her down." She said "no, she calmed herself down. She was delirious. Last she remembers she was in a dark basement, and then nest thing she knows she's in a school nurse's office with an IV in her arm. She just got disoriented and had to reorient herself is all." I replied. "Kid, you've gotta stay with her, at least spend time getting to know her. that's what I want you to do with your downtime." Maria ordered "fine, but as soon as I'm able I'm out scouting and scrounging supplies, not babysitting." I said "I'm fine with that." Maria said calmly, as if she knew how I'd react the whole time.


	28. Chapter 26

Another week had passed and I'd been given a light rifle and was puling guard duty from my room. I also had been given a crossbow, something I'd forgotten I knew how to use. I'd been spending more time with Lily, and she'd been making progress, physically and mentally. She still wanted to look for her sisters and I couldn't blame her, not knowing had to be killing her.

The

Walking

Dead

I sat scanning the area with my rifle it wasn't my AK, but it would do for now. Next to me below the windowsill was my new scoped crossbow, a modified Horton Wildcat, made to have a draw weight of only 100 pounds, making it easier to pull back; I hadn't really used it much but it was deadly accurate when I did. I was supposed to tell the other sentries when I saw something, and if they couldn't handle it I'd help them handle it. I hadn't been doing that; I'd just been taking out creeps myself. I wanted to keep myself sharp so I made sure I could still pull headshots.

I heard a knock on the door behind me and turned my head to look "hi Lily." I greeted looking back to my scope. "On watch?" she asked "up and about?" I asked back jokingly "yeah, I'm feeling a lot better. I'm still not up to run or go long distance, but I'm up and about." She said smiling. She had a large Cheshire cat smile, and her brown eyes shone when she smiled. "You still can smile. Not a lot of people can anymore." I said "yeah, I noticed."' She said "so, how long were you down there?" I asked.

"I-I don't know really. Maybe three weeks at the most." She speculated I nodded as I took in the information. I looked back through my rifle's scope and saw a creep; I calmly took aim and fired a shot, hitting it in the neck "son of a bitch." I muttered "what?" Lily asked "just barely missed a creeper's head. Got him in the neck." I explained "oh, um, sorry." She said "don't be. Not your fault, I just need better aim." I replied nicely.

I worked the bolt, chambered another round, and took another shot and this time the bullet hit its mark, putting a hole in the creep's head. "Got it." I said almost grinning "nice job, I guess?" she said unsurely "you don't like killing do you?" I asked bluntly "no, it-I just don't. I used to get by without it, just by hiding; I've maybe killed three of those things, the creepers." She replied. "someone in your old group must've been killing em'." I said while looking for another creep "that was my Dad, he protected our group." Lily said "mhm." "And after he and Mom died, well we didn't do too well, my sisters and I. we were starving most of the time, and we couldn't start fire consistently. For weeks, maybe a month or two we lived like that. I honestly don't remember much after that, we met some people and we went back to their camp. After that it's just here, this building." Lily said.

"You were taken prisoner by Marco, A local extortionist. He's dead now." I said "did you find my sisters?" Lily asked "no, must've escaped." I lied. "Then we might find them, when I'm better can we?" she asked excitedly "don't get your hopes up, it's not a friendly world. We may not find them." I said "but you'll help me look?" she asked. I sighed and set my rifle down, and then I turned and looked at her. She looked with her big brown eyes and stared me down, she almost begged me without words. "Yeah, I'll help you search Lily, if we can get a car and supplies we'll search the area." I caved in.

"Hey Carl, Nick wants to see you." Jordan said from the doorway, I grabbed my new crossbow and stood up "what about?" I asked "Noelle, she's in trouble." He replied "alright, on my way." I said as I hurried out the door and into the hallway "where?" I asked as I walked out of the makeshift medical office "Carl stay put-" Maria began "he's cleared, Nick needs to see him." Jordan called, keeping Maria from stopping me. "Jordan, WHERE?" I asked loudly "his office!" Jordan informed me as he tried to catch up.

I made my way down the stairs to Nick's office; I practically burst the door down when I entered the room. "where is she?" I asked "I don't know, I heard she left the building. That's why I called-" he began "YOU DON'T HAVE SOMEONE GUARDING THE FUKING DOORS! SHE COULD JUST LEAVE! YOUR PEOPLE LET A ONE-HANDED GIRL LEAVE!" I yelled grabbing him by the collar and shaking him, ignoring pain in my shoulder. "We're shorthanded; she could have slipped out when the lookouts were switching shifts." Nick inferred frightened by my anger "HOW DID THEY NOT NOTCE HER? HOW STUPID AND FUCKING INCOMPITENT ARE YOU PEOPLE?" I yelled.

Jordan finally entered the room and pulled me off Nick "Carl, calm down, we can go after her. Nick, we need the weapons locker opened." Jordan said "o-okay." Nick said shakily handing him the keys "come on Carl, let's get some more arrows and a gun for you." Jordan said trying to get me out of the room "I've got eight arrows and my knife, just get me a tomahawk and meet me on the road." I said grabbing a camo jacket and throwing it on as I walked out the door.

I hurried to the exit of the school and the lookout moved to stop me, before he could get a word out I elbowed him in the throat and swept his feet from under him, causing him to hit the ground, hard. As I walked out of the building I slammed the door and jogged to the nearest patch of soil and saw a boot print, I recognized it as Noelle's and looked up and saw a trail of muddy prints leading into the ruins. "DAMN!" I cursed alerting a creep which turned and moved towards me. Time to see how rusty I am, I thought to myself.

The creep stumbled towards me, baring its teeth, I walked towards it coldly. I raised my crossbow and pulled the trigger, placing a bolt between its eyes. As the creeper fell I pulled my bolt from the thing's face. I hurried on the trail of Noelle's boot print, I had learned some limited tracking tricks over the past months, all of which I was going to use today. I heard footsteps behind me and turned to see Jordan and Daniyah hurrying out, both armed. "Carl, got you a new tomahawk." Daniyah said handing me a rifleman's hawk with a wooden handle. "Here's a pistol, it's silenced, got ten shots in it." Jordan said handing me a pistol and three magazines "let's move." I ordered angrily as I continued on Noelle's trail.

We hurried into the burnt out buildings that Noelle had run into. "How far can she have gotten? She escaped at the most like ten minutes ago." Daniyah asked "ten minutes is plenty when a person wants to cover ground." I replied reloading my crossbow before continuing on the trail. I saw some grass pushed down and a few rocks on top of some dried mud. I picked up the rocks and saw they weren't muddy "this way." I said leading the way.

I heard footsteps in a nearby building and hurried inside "Noelle?" I whispered I heard a grunt followed by a growl "damn it." I swore walking past a shelf and seeing a half-eaten creep crawling towards me. I stomped once on its head, crushing the skull and causing the brains to splatter the floor. "Keep searching!" I ordered leaving the building and looking for Noelle's trail.

She must've gone through a building to avoid the grass and mud; I didn't see a trail anywhere anymore. "Carl, we've lost-" Jordan started "WE ARE NOT GIVING UP!" I yelled looking around for prints, tracks, skids, dustups, ANYTHING! My yelling had attracted some creeps to our position and now they were where I could see them, I quickly fired an arrow through ones head before drawing my pistol and taking out three more. Daniyah began using her shovel to kill creeps; Jordan was using his crowbar to kill them. A few creeps grew closer, I holstered my pistol and drew my knife; I quickly stabbed one in the head before moving to the next one, putting my knife through its forehead. I pulled my knife out and tripped the third one and stomped its head.

A fourth on was further off and I took the time to reload the crossbow, I put my foot in the footloop and pulled the string back. Then I loaded a bolt and raised the crossbow, firing the bolt into the creep's eye. I quickly reloaded my crossbow and hurried past some creeps, ignoring them "CARL!" Daniyah called hurrying after me. One creeper reached for me and I tripped it, then I stomped its head. "Carl, stop! She's gone! We've lost her trail; we have no clue where she went, SHE'S GONE!" Daniyah yelled grabbing me by the shoulders.

"Get off me." I growled "no." she said holding her ground. I tried to push her but she grabbed my arms and pulled me with her, then she used her legs to push me over her. As I made my way to the ground she wrenched my crossbow from me and pushed it aside and out of my reach. Before I could do anything she was on me, she pulled my tomahawk, knife, and pistol from me and tossed them away, and then she put me into a neck-hold. "Carl, you have to calm down and think rationally! Noelle's gone. I know you cared about her, she was family! She was my family too, and you need to know when to say goodbye!" she lectured as I struggled to get free.

She held me on the ground for what seemed like hours, patiently waiting for me to calm down. "Carl, you calm yet?" she asked, I didn't answer, I just couldn't. "Carl, I'll let you go when you're calm. When you're ready to head home." She said keeping her hold on me. Jordan was standing about ten feet away by my weapons, looking around for creeps. Suddenly I heard a snarling noise, then a series of cat-like hisses "what's that?" I asked trying to look around "not sure." Daniyah replied loosening her hold on me. I heard a screeching hiss and Jordan yelled in fright "HOLY CRAP!" Daniyah exclaimed grabbing her shovel and releasing me.

I looked up and saw, jumping through the air, a cat; but this wasn't a housecat. This thing was wild-looking and much larger, about the size of a large bobcat. It had brown and grey fur, which grew in a scruffy and wild manner and made it look feral. It was about a foot from Jordan when Daniyah hit it down with one stroke of her shovel "Carl, grab your weapons!" she ordered. I quickly gathered up my weapons, just in time for three more of the large cats to arrive. I put an arrow in one as it leapt towards me, causing it to fall just short of my feet. It twitched and shook for a few seconds before being still, dead. I pulled my arrow out and slung my crossbow over my shoulder, pulling my knife and tomahawk out.

I heard a shriek and turned just in time to be knocked over by one of the cats; I quickly grabbed its two front paws and threw it into the wall of a building, stunning it. I grabbed my knife and tomahawk before running over and finishing the stunned animal with a tomahawk to the head. "We need to get back to the school!" Jordan yelled over hisses and screams; the three of us ran away, dodging and hitting numerous cats, only by luck managing to kill at the most three or four. We ran into the street to the front of the school "OPEN THE DOORS!" Daniyah hollered at the top of her lungs as we came to the doors, which swung open.

We ran in and Jordan and I pulled the doors violently shut, the three of us huffed and panted in exhaustion "what the fuck were those things?" Jordan panted "how should we know?" I asked "yeah, you all've been living here for over half a year." Daniyah panted. "What's wrong?" Rosana asked "a bunch of fucking giant cats attacked us, there were at least ten of em' out there." I replied checking for scratches, I didn't want to die from rabies or something. "Maybe they're ferals." Ian suggested "what?" I questioned "they're probably like, third, fourth generation cats from the start of this thing. I bet their grandparents or some shit were housecats." He speculated.

"Tell me how you get those things, from my grandma's lazy ass fluffy lap-cat." Daniyah demanded "it makes sense now that Ian mentions it, cats breed fast, so they'll change more in a shorter time." I said remembering what I'd learned about basic evolution in high school. Daniyah still looked confused, so did Jordan and Rosana for that matter "they've been living in the same world we have, which explains the aggressive behavior, and couple that with a need to hunt, and defend themselves from creeps and other threats," I began "and you get fucking crazy killer cats after a few generations." Ian said finishing my thought. We still got confused looks from everyone.

"Come on, it's natural selection. You can't tell me all of you forgot that?" Ian asked "no, we just didn't expect killer kitties." Rosana said lightly pushing him and smiling. I heard hissing and scratching at the door behind me "let's all get away from the doors and find a way to kill these fucking things from inside." Daniyah said I started walking up to the nurse's hall. To get to the nurse's hall I had to go through the dorms. "See, it's dangerous here. We should leave Sally." I heard as I passed an open dorm I quickly moved against the wall and began eavesdropping "Simon, what about Miles, he can't make it out there." Sally said "we can protect him, he's a tough kid." Simon argued. I moved away from the wall and walked to the Nurse's office and set all of my stuff down. "Hey Carl, what happened?" Lily asked "we lost her." I replied grabbing my rifle and walking to my room.

"Who? What're you doing?" Lily asked "putting down some damn cats." I replied working the bolt and chambering a round. "Wait what?" she questioned "large feral cats. Mean fuckers." I replied as I entered my room and whistled loudly "HERE KITTY KITTY!" I yelled attracting the pack. "Carl, wait a second!" Lily said "sorry, these things are too dangerous to leave out there." I replied pulling the trigger and killing one. I quickly moved the bolt and shot another as the cats scattered. "Damn, I was hoping to get more of em'." I said "Carl explain why you're killing cats." Lily demanded "those cats attacked us just a few minutes ago; they're the size of bobcats and twice as mean. They're dangerous predators. And we are on their list of prey." I explained stepping away from the window.

I sat down in my chair and put my rifle on the floor "well, I overheard there's going to be a celebration tomorrow." Lily said "a little late isn't it?" I asked "I guess the people had to recover a bit." She replied "I guess." I replied. She was silent for a while, I looked up and saw she was looking at me questioningly and enthusiastically "I'm not going." I said "I don't deserve to celebrate." I leaned forward and hung my head in shame. "Why? You helped get rid of the man extorting these people, you killed him and the man he worked for-" she said "I didn't kill Marco, and I was lucky to get through that fight. Two more died trying to kill both of 'em." I interrupted.

"Well, you saved me and Arron. And you made sure your friend never turned." Lily said "it was my fault he died, I didn't act fast enough. I'm not celebrating." I said getting up and walking out of the room and down to the old dorm wing. I opened the door to Noelle and Caleb's old dorm and sat on the floor by the door. I looked around and saw their old belongings, there was a small backpack on the desk and I got up and picked it up. I unzipped it and pulled out a flask, two flashlights, and some bullets to Noelle's 22. Pistol. I looked on the desk and saw a folded piece of paper and picked it up. i unfolded the paper to reveal a letter...

_ Dear Carl,_

_I can't stay here, with all this stuff, it keeps brining up old memories. I'm not leaving to die. I'm leaving to live, if that makes any sense. You've been like the little brother I never had. You were all the closest to family I've had since this started and I'll miss you all. Tell the others that you're all in my heart, and you're all in my memory. Maybe I'll see some of you guys again. Maybe I won't. please keep trying to live. Don't ever give up._

_Love, Noelle_


End file.
